UOA5 vs A4

[CountFunkula]

No experience with either, but I've always thought of an A4 as somewhere in between an A5 and an A2. Then UOA5 comes in and blows the roof off my reality

How do these two compare? My guess is that the UOA5 is closer to A2 and A4 to A5, but I need someone with experience.

[Despair]

The A4 has a bit harder upper mids than the UOA5. Also, note that all A2s are unoriented.

From what I gather, the UOA5 has a softer feel than the A4, the A4 is punchier but a bit rounder than the A5.

How the other parts of pickups respond to different magnets varies a bit, depends on how their EQ curves mesh.

I haven't gotten around to trying my A4, I need to order UOA5 as well...

[blueman335]

Yes, an A4 is between an A2 and A5, but so is an UOA5. There's a lot of middle ground there. A2's and A5's are opposite ends of the spectrum.

UOA5's capture a lot of an A2's rich dynamics & response, which an A4 doesn't. I find UOA5's useful when I want a warm magnet, and an A2 is too rounded on top, and an A8 is too in-your-face. UOA5's become a blessing. You can keep the vintage sound of an A2, but get a bit of treble for bite, and a firmer low-end.

A4's more or less have a flat EQ (possibly the only alnico that does), so it doesn't push any particular part of the EQ spectrum, which we're accustomed to with other magnets. Some guys find A4's kind of bland for that reason. Whereas I only see UOA5's as suited for the bridge slot, A4's work well in bridge and neck both. Some guys love A4 '59N's. For my uses, I prefer polished A4's in the neck (sharper tone), and roughcast A4's in the bridge for soother highs.

Every alnico has it uses somewhere. The more guitars you have, the more applications you'll find.

[Johnny-DK]

I just swapped a rough A4 for a rough UOA5 in my LP Bridge pup (8,2k).
In my ears the A4 is very open sounding, while the UOA5 is slightly compressed and the highs seem rounder.
In this case the UOA5 have more output, and I guess it should.
I like both but I like the UOA5 a little better in this guitar, so it stays!
For a while at least - magnet swapping tends to get under your skin.

[blueman335]

I just swapped a rough A4 for a rough UOA5 in my LP Bridge pup (8,2k).
In my ears the A4 is very open sounding, while the UOA5 is slightly compressed and the highs seem rounder.
In this case the UOA5 have more output, and I guess it should.
I like both but I like the UOA5 a little better in this guitar, so it stays!
For a while at least - magnet swapping tends to get under your skin.

UOA5's have a little more personality to them. Nice blend of warmth, dynamics, & output.

[CountFunkula]

Yes, an A4 is between an A2 and A5, but so is an UOA5. There's a lot of middle ground there. A2's and A5's are opposite ends of the spectrum.

UOA5's capture a lot of an A2's rich dynamics & response, which an A4 doesn't. I find UOA5's useful when I want a warm magnet, and an A2 is too rounded on top, and an A8 is too in-your-face. UOA5's become a blessing. You can keep the vintage sound of an A2, but get a bit of treble for bite, and a firmer low-end.

A4's more or less have a flat EQ (possibly the only alnico that does), so it doesn't push any particular part of the EQ spectrum, which we're accustomed to with other magnets. Some guys find A4's kind of bland for that reason. Whereas I only see UOA5's as suited for the bridge slot, A4's work well in bridge and neck both. Some guys love A4 '59N's. For my uses, I prefer polished A4's in the neck (sharper tone), and roughcast A4's in the bridge for soother highs.

Every alnico has it uses somewhere. The more guitars you have, the more applications you'll find.

Why doesn't UOA5 work in the neck? It seems weird that A2, A4 and A5 would, but something in between them wouldn't.

[FuseG4]

I'm quite interested in this as my PGb seems like it could use a lil more attitude. Does it seem like UOA5 would be better than A4 to smooth the highs of a bright bridge pickup?

[AniML]

If I can take this thread back one step...

is UOA5 something new? Since it is unoriented are there any differences with RWRP cancellation?

[Kam]

If I can take this thread back one step...

is UOA5 something new? Since it is unoriented are there any differences with RWRP cancellation?

Relatively new, I think. To most of us, anyway. I'd never heard of it until Blueman brought it to our attention several months ago.

And no. Unoriented simply refers to how the magnetic 'grains' line up. It still has regular north and south poles, so there are no polarity or phase issues. A2 and A4 are unoriented naturally.

[jalguitarman]

Ok fill me ,in whats an uoa5?

[Despair]

Unoriented A5. Just like the A2 is unoriented. Just means all the magnetic grains in the magnet aren't as well-aligned, so it tends to have a less strong magnet field, with more squish and less bright and deep a sound compared to an aligned magnet like an A5.

[jalguitarman]

tanks.

[cheameup]

I can say the uoa5 is awesome. I really dig it . More mids and smoother top than the stock c5 . But all in a good way. Spoke to me much more than the c8.
Have an a4 to try in my 59n. Will probably swap it over this weekend. I'm a big fan of the 59n so it'll have to be pretty good to stay.

[hamerfan]

Why doesn't UOA5 work in the neck? It seems weird that A2, A4 and A5 would, but something in between them wouldn't.

It does not work in neck, if you fight with bass boominess. Some guitar develop this with an 59N. The UOA5 makes it worse: the bass boominess remains and sharp edges in the highs are shaved - part of the definition is lost. This is a good thing in the Bridge to get more warmess but not in the neck.

[Despair]

Whether UOA5 works in the neck is likely to depend on the pickup. If you need a louder Pearly Gates neck that doesn't lose all of the squish and mids, I could see it really working.

There's also hacks to control the bass, like the de-mud mod or screw swapping. Sadly overlooked, I feel, which is why I babble about them incessantly...

[blueman335]

Whether UOA5 works in the neck is likely to depend on the pickup. If you need a louder Pearly Gates neck that doesn't lose all of the squish and mids, I could see it really working.

Good point. I hadn't thought of it going in an A2 neck PAF when you need a bit more treble. It should work well for that.

[Arkas6767]

So I'm fairly new to this whole forum but I was wondering if a UOA5 is supposed to have characteristics of both A2 and A5 then does it still retain the sharper attack of an A5? I was thinking about putting a UOA5 into a T-Top humbucking project but I wanted to clarify before I set myself on it.

[IanBallard]

Supposedly, A LOT of Gibson's PAF's during the "golden" period were A4 mags. There was a site (can't remember to save my life) that showed the invoices from the late 50's into the early 60's and vest majority of the purchases were for A4's. Some people have said they sound "stale" but that might be due to the fairly even nature of the EQ, which has also been a criticism of the A8 as well. Some people like "peaky" tones. Personally I'd love to try a set of 59's with the bridge being an A8 and the neck being an A4.

[Despair]

Manufacturing and materials tolerances are much tighter for many things in electronics these days. It also wouldn't be too hard for a batch of A5s to have been misprepared and wind up unoriented. Magnet designation and formulations/grades got swapped around with rather high frequency.

I've run across that site, think it was a pickup winder/designer forum, or at least that's how I found it.

Also ran across a huge list of things like resistance for several examples of the "same" Fender pickup of different years.

And inductance and resistances for a pile of Fender, Gibson, DiMarzio & Seymour Duncan pickups, all measured by the same guy.

Need to dig up some of that stuff again.