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@scottosan !
Is this thread full of bullshit or full of truth or both and can you break it down for the rest of us?
Cliffs: passing a neo magnet over an assembled (even installed) humbucker degausses the magnet and changes the tone.
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/degaussing-a-pickup-in-real-time.2429233/
So many ways to go in this. First, neodymium is way too strong to try and do this with any accuracy. It's great for full charging a magnet. I charge my own magnets this way. But there's no nuance to the process. You can actually reverse the polarity this way.
As for changing tone, not in the sense of voicing. The affect it has on your overall sound can be dramatic Enough that I wouldn't correct someone for claiming it changes their tone You're just changing the output of them pickup. It has no affect on the resonant frequency of the pickup.
The reason various magnet types sound tonally differently aside from output, is the inductive properties of the alloys. Basically more iron and nickel, the higher the inductance. Ceramic basically has no affect on increasing inductance in pickup. An ALNICO 2 for example is more inductive than ALNICO 5. It raised the inductance and lowers the resonant peak and fells more saturated and soft than A5 as a result. Ceramic keeps the inductance low and increases the resonant peaks contributing to the brightness. The resonant peaks and frequency is derived from inductance and capacitance. The q factor is derived from resonant peaks, inductance, and impedance/resistance. Changing the magnet strength cant change those parameters, it can only change the transductive efficiency of the pickup. Regardless of what Glenn Fricker says, a pickup is inductor and a transducer. An inductor on its own can't work as a pickup. It needs a magnet.
The ALNICO magnets come oriented and u oriented. Generally the stronger magnets are oriented. What this meant is that it can be charged in a specific direction. I'm the case of pickups, along the longest thin edges of the magnet that butt up against the pole pieces. A2 is unoriented and can be charged on any side. For single coils it the flat part of the poles.
I think this method is safest on single coils. For humbuckers, holding it over the the pole pieces will have a different affect depending if it's oriented or unoriented. On unoriented, you could really screw things up because your holding a strong magnet at a 90 degree axis it's original charge. You could make the top flat part a pole and loose the string filed butting up to the pole pieces.
