Is there a way to dampen a magnetic field on a pickup?

constantine · December 16

Well, you all know what I'm about to ask, the dreaded hot B string on a magnetic pickup. There are not adjustable poles so I was wondering if there was a way to dampen just the b string area of a magnetic pickup. Peanut butter? Gum? Jello...

Thanks

Dean

Buco · December 16

Electrical tape. I haven't tried it but heard that it works. I'd experiment with different kinds of tape, maybe aluminum foil tape that HVAC people use might do the trick.

constantine · December 16

Buco!!!

Thank you brother

Arcticguitar · December 16

Blocking magnetic fields is almost impossible. There is an alloy called “mu metal” that works well for magnetic shielding, but is very, very expensive. Other than that magnetic fields can be redirected using any ferromagnetic metal. A thin strip of magnetic material over the B string pole will change the shape of the field, less of the field will reach out to the string and that will help. Think if it this way, magnetic fields flow from pole to pole in the air around the magnet, the thin metal strip provides a more direct, less resistive, path (vs air) for the field to flow through, therefore most of the field will flow from pole to pole via the metal strip, bypassing the string.

The other thing is, although magnetic fields are hard to block they can easily be canceled out, just slide a small magnet of opposite polarity near the offending pole, the closer the reverse polarity magnet gets the more the b string magnet is canceled. There is actually a pickup manufacturer, I can’t remember who, that makes a very thin pickup with a sliding reverse polarity magnet to adjust the strength of the b string.