Guitar Pickup With No Magnets - Is It Possible? 

It still boils down to pickups are not worth $200-$300 just because of the way they are wound. You will never wind a pickup the same way twice. It's just impossible to line up 42 gauge wire on every wrap & have the same way twice. You also need to factor in the gauge of strings 9's/10's 9's sound brighter. The way they describe alnico is always warm & that really isn't true ceramic always sound darker & muddier whereas alnico is brighter. The wrap of wire, the gauge of wire & the strength of the magnet is what's in play & determines the output. People imo always over think pickups. They really don't play as big of part as the rest of your gear. Don't get me wrong a strong magnet with little copper will sound bad but most all guitars at the $150-$200 range have decent pickups. The myths of alnico are better need to stop. Steve Via use ceramic. You can use that money in better places to get better tone. But good video.

The resistance of a coil in simple term resistance is called inductive reactance.

Wow, good to see Bo! He sold me my first Martin from The Guitar Galley back in ~2001.

NEW SUBSCRIBER +1 . Very informative clip , I've often wondered what Henry's inductance was all about . About to watch another . Cheers !

Fascinating. 🤓 I didn't expect the Pickup to make any sound without the magnets. Phil McKnight mentioned that he thinks Modelers sound or work better if the guitar has hotter Pickups. Have you noticed that yourself? Thanks

Amazing video thank you!!!

It barely gets louder as the magnet approaches the coil. But the magnet restricts the vibration of the string as it gets nearby and thus reduces the affected signal strength into the coil. A larger string travel generates a louder signal, a smaller string travel generates a weaker signal. The string is attracted and thus dampened by the nearby magnet.

Interesting. Would it mean that it's a similar strength signal to a piezo bridge without a preamp?

Sorry...bit of a dummy there: The vibrating strings act as magnets...magnetized by the coil permanent magnets. They couldn't be part of the coil because they are not physically connected to it. In fact, since they attach to the bridge, which is grounded, they strings are grounded also. All of this works because the strings are made of "ferro-magnetic" material (ie: steel & nickel). Electricity is generated in a coil when it moves in a magnetic field OR the magnet moves in relation to the coil. Because the coil & the main magnets are fixed in relation to each other, it is the vibrating magnetized strings that cause the magnetic field to vibrate, generating current in the coil. It doesn't matter whether the coil or the magnet is moving, as long as the coil wires are crossing the magnetic lines of force. And, more current is generated with a more powerful magnetic & magnetic field, and more turns of wire in the coil to cross the magnetic lines of force. Thus, it is possible for an old pickup, with an intact coil, to cease working, or work poorly, because the magnet has weakened. This is proven by the fact that non-ferro-magnetic (ie: bronze) strings, which would conduct electricity, do not generate output on an electric guitar. What are called "bronze" strings work because the core is steel...as are the non-wrapped high strings. This is also why nylon strings don't work on an electric guitar...though there is at least one make of nylon string that does work, because the wrapping is steel, as are, again, the unwrapped high strings (Alternatively, the high strings could still have a fine steel core embedded in the nylon.) The point is that without magnets, you can't generate electricity with a moving coil, but the resistance & the "Henries" of a coil can be measured without the presence of the magnets. What you failed to do is check the magnetism of the strings. If there is output without the pickup magnets, then the only answer is that the strings themselves are retaining some magnetism in the absence of the pickup magnets..

Air core steel core ferrite core and magnetic core inductors

You just had to put the magnetic field tester over the strings.

The Dyson guitar pickup.

Just magnetize the damn strings 🤣

The Henrys are irrelevant. They change because you changed the core of the coil by removing the magnets. The value of an inductor will change according to what the core material is.

I think the strings have some residual magnetism which is why you can hear a faint sound. Pickups are really quite simple. Most pickups have fully charaged alnico 5', so the difference in the sound is nearly all determined by the number of winds or the DC resistance of the pickup.

🤣 p♥r♥o♥m♥o♥s♥m

Nerds 😙

I am Henry the VIII I am...

There is too many myths floating around.

I love me some poorly played out of tune guitar gear demos

To me it looks like two first graders testing whether a rag will burn without gasoline or not. To anyone familiar with basic electrical engineering, all of these experiments are fairly obvious. Of course, all this needs to be shown for educational purposes, but why so slowly and for so long? It was possible to explain all this in one and a half to two times shorter, to show the differences, to explain all the nuances. *"Like" set though.

This is a false presentation. It is absolutely essential that a magnetic field is present to couple the string to the pickup or no sound will be amplified. The pickup is an inductor and is coupled to the string via a magnetic field. As the string vibrates it couples more and less through the field as it vibrates. Without the presence of a magnetic field there is ZERO coupling and zero audio. A magnetic field can be produced by 2 mechanisms ( in this case) a) A magnet in the pickup or residual magnetism in the pole piece bar under the pickup b) A current flowing through the pickup coil as it connects to the input stage of the amplifier. The inductor in the pickup works without a magnet ( in this case ) only due to the residual current flowing through the pickup coil connected to the guitar amplifier input stage electronics or some residual magnetic field present near the pickup. This current is created from the input circuit of the guitar amplifier or pedal. Using an operational amplifier as the input stage for the guitar ( say a guitar pedal with an operational input stage ) will produce no sound at all due to the infinitely small input current of operational amplifiers. ( assuming no presence of a residual magnetic field)