source for larger alnico V bar magnets for pickups?

Steve Waltz · From: USA

I'm building a pickup for fun. It's basically a P-90 set up but with a single steel blade instead of screw pole pieces. It's for a 10 string steel.

Anyone have a suggestion for where to get longer than average Alnico V bars?

Thanks,

Al Szwarc · From: Metuchen, New Jersey, USA * R.I.P.

Before you get all involved in building pickups from scratch, I would buy a couple and do some rewinding. You will have a much better chance of ending up with an acceptable pickup and it will still be fun for you. The fun leaves quickly when you are all bog down in trying to find decent supplies. And bad pickups should be easy to find. Just a thought al

Steve Waltz · From: USA

I appreciate the suggestion and I understand the point. That is why I am following some of the basic guidlines of a few steel guitar pickups that are known to sound good. I'm using the suggestion of a current builder as far as the number of turns and the wire to use. I also confirmed those numbers with a few people that have had these and torn them apart.

I also spoke with Jason Lollar who was kind enough to make a sugestion about how to get magnets to work for a ten string. He suggests using the normal 2.5 x 1.5 Alnico V bar magents and mounting them on each side and just pushing them out towards the high and low string. In my case that means that I will have about 1/4 inch of blade with only one magnet on each end but the rest will have a magnet on each side. He doesn't think it will be a big deal and it's alot cheaper than having special ones made.

So far the magnets were $4 a piece, the blade is just plain steel that will get sealed, 40,000 feet of wire was about $35 and the flatwork shouldn't cost much of anything. If it doesn't turn out, I'll live. There just isn't much diversity of ten strings pickups out there and some of them can get into the $250 a piece range.

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