The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Ok so let's say you get a dc resistance of 5.34k per coil a total of 10.68k. Since i get the low number of 5.34k per coil this means the pickup has an alnico magnet? Now do i do all this testing for ceramic and alnico on the same setting on multimeter or do i have have change settings and compare the results?

No. The coils of the humbucker pickup will always have the same resistance regardless of what magnet is used in the pickup.

The magnet is located between the two coils and the backing plate. It is roughly about 3/8" x 1/8" x 3" long (10x3x75mm). Sometimes it is hidden by the black tape wound around the coils. If it is visible and you touch your multimeter probes on the actual magnet (without touching the base plate) you will be able to tell whether it is a alnico magnet or a ceramic magnet.

Checking the dc resistance of the magnet is only done to quickly check whether it is an alnico or ceramic magnet.

The sound a pickup produces varies depending on the magnet chosen. Often people can hear a difference between an Alnico 7 magnet and an Alnico 5 magnet on the same pickup. The sound difference between ceramic and alnico magnets is significant IMO.

Ok i think i get it now To do this process I just touch the exposed magnet with the pos and neg multimeter contacts with the meter set on OHM and check the resistance as i always would this time avoiding testing the wires and the baseplate right? Also how much of a difference in sound is there between the alnico 5 and alnico 7 and alnico 2 ?