Quick question: Magnets in Stormy Mondays?

[Philly Q]

I'm thinking about ordering a Stormy Monday neck pickup, and looking at the products page it says "Magnet: Alnico II or Alnico IV".

I seem to recall from recent comments that Tim pretty much always recommends AIV as being preferable to AII.

My question: is either AII or AIV fitted as "standard", or should we always specify which we want  :?:

Cheers chaps!

[FELINEGUITARS]

Think Tim said he had some really nice Alnico 2 that he was using in the stormy's now and was using it as a standard now he found an Alnico 2 formulation that he liked so much

[Richie Zero]

I have a set which I bought in about November of last year (i.e. a pretty recent production) and when I ordered, I made a point of deliberately leaving it up to BKP/Tim to select the magnets - the "what-do-I-need-Tim-OK-mate-brilliant" approach had worked wonders for my SG after all!

I suspect it the decision of AII or AIV may be partly based on the type of guitar but my set (for a Gibson ES-347) came back with Alnico II magnets.

I have heard another take on this though, namely: AIIs for jazz; AIVs for blues. Maybe .... maybe not. The neck pickup in my ES does do a lovely clean jazz sound but the guitar certainly isn't shy about going more in the noisy blues-rock direction either.

[Philly Q]

Thanks guys.  I was half-expecting the answer to be that AIV is now standard, so I got that wrong.  As usual.  :roll:

From my limited experience of AII humbuckers (Gibson 490Ts and 490Rs, basically) I find they tend to get a bit mushy with distortion.  That's not such a bad thing with a neck pickup, AFAIC, in fact I quite like it in some ways, but I don't think I'd ever choose an AII bridge pickup.

Anyhow, I'm 99% decided on a Black Dog for the bridge, so I want something sweet and singing to contrast with that midrangey growl.  I'm still thinking AIV SM might be a better match for the AV BD, but I'm not so sure now.  :?

[PhilKing]

Most of the time Tim seems to use A4 if you are using a bridge pickup with A5, as he prefers this combination.  This was the case with both TO and my Riff Raff/SM set.  However when I got a set of SM's for my 335, they came with A2 magnets.  In your case where you are getting a Black Dog for the bridge, I would expect Tim to put A4 in the neck SM.

[Fourth Feline]

I ordered a set of Stormy Mondays a few months ago without specifying the magnet, and the pickups came with  Alnico II magnets as 'default'.

These gave me a nice Snowy White "Bird of Paradise" sound in a Les Paul, but performed even nicer in a Gibson S.G. where the less focused Alnico II magnets really let the thinner body breathe and sing.

I eventually put Alnico IV Mules  in the Les Paul (on Tim's advice) and now the subtle and  desired/characteristic Les Paul mid range 'hump' has been restored without any loss in clarity compared to the Stormy Mondays.

For me there is something about the Alnico II magnets that almost defines the open 'Stormy Monday' sound.

 :D

[Tim]

I have got a lovely supply of Alnico II now and use these by default for Stormy Monday and BKP90s..............AIV is still my fav mag but the AIIs work really well in the lower wind of the SMs and in thts instance, better than AIV IMHO.Having said that I'll do AIV on request.

[Philly Q]

Thanks very much Tim, thanks everyone.   :D

Just ordered the Black Dog and AII Stormy Monday (or AIV if you change your mind, whatever you think'll work best, Maestro!)

[lulusg]

Hi :). Has anybody tried an Stormy Monday set with alnico II on the neck, and alnico IV on the bridge?. Using this tread to save space Philly Q. Thanks.

[Philly Q]

Using this tread to save space Philly Q. Thanks.

By all means, sir!  I've sorted my question out.  :D

[dave_mc]

Hi :). Has anybody tried an Stormy Monday set with alnico II on the neck, and alnico IV on the bridge?. Using this tread to save space Philly Q. Thanks.

I may be way off here, and this is just from memory, but I seem to remember tim (or someone paraphrasing what tim said) saying that al IV doesn't work too well with al II?

best do a search, though.

[lulusg]

Thanks Dave. Tim recommended alnico II set ( it is for an SG ) , and nickel cover. That is as vintage as it gets.  :)

[dave_mc]

:drink:

at the end of the day, if in doubt, ask tim, lol.