What happens if I put A8 magnets into a Warpig?

[Alshain]

Hello everyone,

I have an alnico 5 Warpig, I'm planning to swap its magnet with an alnico 8. What do you think about it? Could it blow my brain or amplifier due to Warpig's high output?

[GuitarIv]

That might not help, but you will only know if you try :P
Remember though that swapping the magnet will make you lose your guarantee.

[Alshain]

I've just received an answer from Tim,

"the bass response would increase dramatically and you would lose a lot of high end detail and dynamics - the tone would become very compressed and flat sounding."

I'll try that anyways.

[HTH AMPS]

What do you want to change about the sound of the Warpig? - that would be a better question so we can suggest ways of helping you achieve that goal.

Also, I've never tried this, but I'd be interested in hearing what affect the magnet gauss has - could be scope for tweaking things with that.

[Alshain]

I'm not aiming for spesific kind of a sound, just experimenting with different pickups/magnets. Warpig already sounds huge. A8 mags tend to warm up tone a little bit, highs getting rounder. I think it will sound muddy at low end.

[GuitarIv]

So you're doing this just out of interest? :P
I wouldn't slaughter a 150 dollar pickup out of interest, but then again, that's me ^^
Report your results, will you?

Cheers

[Alshain]

I'll share the result, magnet swapping is not risky, I've done this before, so my 150 bucks will be fine. :shock:

[mongey]

I've tried a few A8 mag swaps in varioos duncans  . In a warpig I think the mids would get kind of ugly . they always have that c--ked wah thing going on to my ears

[ericsabbath]

A8 mags tend to warm up tone a little bit, highs getting rounder. I think it will sound muddy at low end.

not in my experience
I did that with a holy diver and the results were exactly the opposite
the high end sounded very dry, unlike the stock holy diver, and the low end sounded a lot tighter
sounds like you're describing going from ceramic to a8

the stock diver sounded amazing in the 3 les pauls I had it installed, but too muffled and muddy in a gibson sg, so I had this a8 bar laying around and tried to fix the "problem"
i the end, I had a articulate sounding sg, but it wasn't toneful at all
it was a great sounding guitar and a great sounding pickup (in stock form), but they simply weren't made for each other

it might sound good, but you will feel a big difference in volume and probably lose a big part of the smooth and spongy feel of the alnico 5 pig
I'm not gonna try to convince you not to do it, as I love experimenting and I rarely regret any of my good or bad experiences with gear as long as I don't lose lots of money
if you don't mind losing the warranty and already have the magnet bar, just do it and tell us what you found

[Alshain]

I've swapped mags, it sounded too dry to my ears, lost some of it's deep brain melting punch and dynamics didn't like it at all and swapped again with a ceramic magnet that I removed from a Duncan TB-5, now it's metalheads wet dream. By the way my Warpig has all screw poles.

[GuitarIv]

So you ended up with a C-Pig? Hahaha  :P
What is this fuss regarding Alnico 8 magnets all about anyway? I think if Tim found them usefull, he would have presented us a pickup that utilizes it. I know Seymour Duncan have a specimen. (Alternative 8 or something like that?)

Cheers

[Afghan Dave]

So you ended up with a C-Pig? Hahaha  :P
What is this fuss regarding Alnico 8 magnets all about anyway? I think if Tim found them usefull, he would have presented us a pickup that utilizes it.

That's what I think.

It's like these guys that mod supercars... Like Ferrari don't bother with R&D and haven't already tried to make the car the best it can be.

If it's anything other than cosmetic, it always ends up worse.  :?