Pickup magnet swap in SE Santana

[TonyG]

Hi all. Love my Santana but after getting a Chris Robertson with a USA spec 57/08 in realised that the pickups on the Santana, whilst not too bad by any means, were a bit harsh in the treble end and not quite as clear as with the 57/08.
I’ve read that you can get good results by swapping out magnets, so I’m thinking about changing the magnet to an A2 to see if this will tame things somewhat and give a bit more of a 57/08 vibe.
I’m not too sharp with a soldering iron (and too tight to buy new pickups).
I know I’m not going to make a silk purse out of a sows ear but has anyone here have any experience or advice about doing this?

 

[Boogie]

Totally doable. In fact, if you do it and like it, I might do that to my SE Santana/245 bridge pickup, too!

 

[Fullmoon 1971]

I found that a simple magnet swap reaaly brought the SE pickups to life, get a set of Alnico III or unoriented Alnico 5 magnets and swap the old ones out (plenty of vids on youtube showing how) this really opens them up (Alnico III is what Gibson Used in their Collectors choice and true historic pickups, Unoriented Alnico 5 sound like aged 50's humbuckers to me). Alnico III are slightly more like a P-90 than Unoriented Alnico 5 (early P-90's fhad Alnico III Magnets.

If you like your Chris Robertson try a Alnico III in the neck and a Unoriented Alnico 5 in the bridge. Don't worry about having magnets polarity the same, if you get it wrong you get the bonus of the pickups out of phase in the middle position when both volumes are the same setting ala Peter Green - just roll one volume slightly off for both humbuckers at full again.

Magnets can be sourced pretty cheap and are a great way of improving any pickup.

Heres where I get mine from
http://www.addiction-fx.com/

Here a really good article on the diffeerent magnets and their qualities
https://romainpickups.com/alnico-magnets-explained/

 

[TonyG]

Cool thanks for the advice.
I decided earlier today to take a punt and order some Alnico 2’s. I think the pickups on the Santana are Alnico 5 so went for the 2’s to reduce output a bit and from what I’ve read here should warm things up a bit.
Would an unoriented Alnico 5 make that much difference from the Alnico 5 that is already in there?
To be fair though if the Alnico 2 doesn’t work, then a 4€ a pop I’ll try your suggestion

 

[Fullmoon 1971]

Cool thanks for the advice.
I decided earlier today to take a punt and order some Alnico 2’s. I think the pickups on the Santana are Alnico 5 so went for the 2’s to reduce output a bit and from what I’ve read here should warm things up a bit.
Would an unoriented Alnico 5 make that much difference from the Alnico 5 that is already in there?
To be fair though if the Alnico 2 doesn’t work, then a 4€ a pop I’ll try your suggestion

Glad to be of help.
The Unoriented Alnico 5 is slightly weaker than its full powered, polished sibling. The regular Alnico 5 has a slight scoop in the mids and its highs are quite sharp. Compared to the regular version, the Unoriented version has softer highs and a boost in the midrange making it very useful if you want to keep the Alnico 5 characteristic but give it the impression that the magnet has undergone some intense aging over the course of, oh, let’s say, 30-odd years.

I used to have one of the limited first runs with the US 57/08, when that got stolen I replaced it and bought a US 57/08 for the new one. My Santana used to have the OUA 5 bridge & Alnico III magnet swaps, I found this combination to be extremly close to the sounds of CR so much so that when I scored a set of Dragon II's (2 sets actually) off evilbay one set and a 5 way rotary switch went in the santana.

Try a 0.033 Paper in oil capacitor as well (early santana's had this instead of .022) with the magnet it really smooths things out.

 

[TonyG]

Glad to be of help.
The Unoriented Alnico 5 is slightly weaker than its full powered, polished sibling. The regular Alnico 5 has a slight scoop in the mids and its highs are quite sharp. Compared to the regular version, the Unoriented version has softer highs and a boost in the midrange making it very useful if you want to keep the Alnico 5 characteristic but give it the impression that the magnet has undergone some intense aging over the course of, oh, let’s say, 30-odd years.

I used to have one of the limited first runs with the US 57/08, when that got stolen I replaced it and bought a US 57/08 for the new one. My Santana used to have the OUA 5 bridge & Alnico III magnet swaps, I found this combination to be extremly close to the sounds of CR so much so that when I scored a set of Dragon II's (2 sets actually) off evilbay one set and a 5 way rotary switch went in the santana.

Try a 0.033 Paper in oil capacitor as well (early santana's had this instead of .022) with the magnet it really smooths things out.

Interesting. I’ve been playing for years and always had high output pups in guitars until I got the Santana 2 years ago which I bought was fantastic. Then I got the CR with the 58/07 and wow. Totally changed my views on pups.
I’ll put The Alnico 2’s in both pups and see how it sounds, may also order a Unoriented 5 too so I can compare and contrast. I’ll let you know the outcome.