What actually is AlNiCo and why am I writing it weirdly? AlNiCo is an alloy of Aluminium, Nickel, Cobalt and a few other elements such as copper. Its part of the Iron family and is usually always used as a magnet due to its high level of Coercivity (how well it holds a charge). The numbers after the AlNiCo such as II,III,V are simply gauges of the ingredients in the alloy. Each type of AlNiCo is made with slightly different ratios of elements.

Why do they sound different? It’s mostly to do with the amount of Cobalt, which increases the amount of magnetic charge (gauss) the AlNiCo’s can hold. So certain types of AlNiCo can be charged stronger than other types. This affects the magnetic field surrounding the pickup and the result for the player, is a tonal change. To confuse matters, the numerics don’t actually follow the amount of cobalt, so don’t think that the higher the number, the stronger it is – that isn’t true.

Now, I could write down the tonal differences but not only is it hard to describe a sound using words, but people hear things differently from each other. There are loads of contradictory statements saying what each type of Alnico sounds like. I’m not going to add another. I’m not going to say what differences I hear at all.

I’m leaving that up to you to decide.

The best way to do this would be to have you all sat in front of me whilst I play live through the same guitar and amp without changing the settings. I obviously can’t do that so I did what I think is the next best thing:

I wound 3 identical Stratocaster pickups, with the only variable being the type of AlNiCo used (Technical info is at the bottom for you curious folk).

This is not a test for great tone, it is simply a way to hear the differences between AlNiCo which will hopefully help you find the perfect pickup for yourself!

Each sample was played three times, once with each pickup in this order:
1. AlNiCo II
2. AlNiCo III
3. AlNiCo V

I strongly recommend listening to this on high quality speakers or headphones

Clean

Dirty

So there you have it, 3 different types of AlNiCo played back to back, with no gaps in time for you to forget what the last one sounded like.

Technical info

Here is a list of all controlled factors that are identical:

Polepiece width and height
Bobbin height
Wire type and gauge (42 AWG Plain Enamel in this test)
Number of turns per layer, total turns and level of scatter
Tension of wire as well as speed of the wind
Winding direction and polarity
Maximum charge on each magnet

The pickups were installed in the middle position of a Fender Stratocaster (Rosewood fingerboard, Alder Body) with standard 250K pots and a 22nf Mojo Dijon capaciter. The height of the installed pickup was consistent throughout. The guitars volume and tone were wide open on every sample and the amplifier (Hughes and Kettner Attax 100 SS) had the
3 band EQ all set to 12 o clock and the volume at 10 o clock. The guitar was plugged directly into the amplifier (no pedals), then mic-ed up and recorded into Ableton Live.

As you can tell, I did everything I could to make the only variable the type of AlNiCo used in the polepieces.

Behemoth. This one was definitely a result of amber nectar. I was at my local pub with friends sitting out front in the beer garden. The pub gets pretty busy in the summer so there were lots of people outside in the garden with us. A woman who must have been pushing 7 feet tall in flats walked past. Someone at the top of their lungs shouted ‘Behemoth!’, fits of laugher later and the word stuck. This pickup is named after a tall woman.

Söten. This is a Swedish word derived from Söt which means ‘sweet’. I’m not 100% sure if its actually a real word or just slang but Söten means ‘sweety’. This was named after my Swedish friend.

F-60s. Well I guess I didn’t put much effort into this one as they are styled after 1960′s pickups from our favourite bolt on builder.

Muffintops. One of the behind the scenes people who has single handedly done all my design work for the last 5 years thinks she has a muffintop. I just wish I could find pole-pieces that look more like muffins.

Hegg. Head + Egg = Hegg. My friend has a giant head shaped like an Egg, enough said.

Divebomb. This is named after my good buddies band. He has been a great source of information as well as very talented guitarist who helped constantly with testing and giving me feedback when designing new models.

Ritzmatitz. Some Norwegian girl took me to a club night once which was called Razmataz. She had difficulty saying that and she ended up calling it Ritzmatitz.

Brainstormer. This is what my favourite beer (Bath ale’s Barnstormer) is commonly referred to.

Leviathan. Its one of the gatekeepers of Hell, I thought it sounded cool and it was also a watery thing in a video game I loved as a kid.

Boot. This is another shout-out to a fine Luthier who has been with me from the start. It’s a brother from another mother situation.

The ones I missed are either NSFW or are just too dumb to write about. So there you go, utter nonsense basically.

Dave