The Steel Guitar Forum

I got this Ric S-100 and the mags had zero magnetic pull to them. I checked the output and it was decent at 6.7K I also thought to try a little experiment. I placed rare earth magnets on the shoes. They now have a magnetic charge. I followed some guidelines I found on the internet to do this.making sure that the shoes were repelling one another.
This little guitar sounds awesome. Comparable to my other Rics, Clinesmith and Fuzzy JB. Please note that the pole pieces of this guitar were magnetically very strong already. I must assume that would have to make this pickup work regardless of the horseshoes not having any charge.
I’m looking for your thoughts and input on this experiment.

I had this guy send me the pickups off his Ricky console once ... one of those 8-10-8 models.

When I was cleaning it up ... I found that under the top flange of all three sets of "magnets" was a thin , half dollar size ferrite magnet set into the underside ... it was milled out and flush ... had to be done before the steel was bent ... I found it while checking the horseshoes with my gauss meter ... it was barely visible even with the bobbins out ...

That's interesting. I guess it worked. So far what I've done here is working. Not leaving the rare earth magnets on permanently. They seem to be working to recharge the shoes...whether the charge will last is unknown.