Long Alnico 3 vs. Short Alnico 2: Which Magnet Wins?

Long Alnico 3 vs. Short Alnico 2: Which Magnet Wins?
Upgrade your guitar with ThroBak Pickups 👉 https://www.throbak.com/

Welcome to Episode #070 of the ThroBak Guitar Lounge Podcast! This week Alnico 3 vs Short Alnico 2 magnets in a P.A.F. style pickup! For the Guitargument Jon and Matthew invite special guest Todd Dhyne to tackle a question that almost every working musician can relate to: Why are bar bands still getting paid $100 per person when that was the going rate 30 years ago?

🎸 Gear Featured in This Episode
Heritage H-150 Custom Core Guitars
ThroBak Lucky 7's P.A.F. Style Repro Reference Pickups
Vintage 1979 Fender Silverface Deluxe Reverb
Nobels ODR-1 effect pedal

🎸 THROBAK NEWS & VIEWER COMMENTS
We kick off Episode #070 with viewer comments and some big ThroBak News for our customers in Japan. ThroBak is now accepting direct orders from Japan! Under our previous agreement with our Japanese distributor, Zenbu Japan, inquiries from Japan were referred to Zenbu. Under our new agreement, Japanese customers can now order directly from ThroBak.

🧲 PICKUPS OF THE WEEK — LONG ALNICO 3 vs. SHORT ALNICO 2
The Great P.A.F. Magnet Duel continues! This week we put two of the weakest magnets in the Alnico family head-to-head: Long Alnico 3 vs. Short Alnico 2.

Using our ThroBak Reference Pickup sets, we play both clean and overdriven tones to find out just how much these two different magnet recipes affect the sound. Which one would you choose?

⚔️ THE GUITARGUMENT — WHY ARE BAR BANDS STILL GETTING PAID $100 A PERSON?
30 YEARS. NO RAISE!

Why haven't bar-band wages kept up with inflation? Should musicians simply refuse to play for $100? Can bar owners realistically afford to pay bands more? Are musicians partly responsible for keeping rates low by continuing to accept these gigs? Or has the entire traditional bar-band business model become obsolete? Find out in the Guitargument!

🎶 RORSCHACH RIFFS — ACOUSTIC EDITION
Matthew puts away the electric guitar for a special Acoustic Edition of Rorschach Riffs featuring four classic riffs from the 1970s. How many can Jon and Todd identify?

📚 MATTHEW’S MUSICAL MUSINGS — A TEENAGE ALEX LIFESON
Matthew takes us back to the fascinating 1973 Canadian documentary Come On Children, directed by filmmaker Allan King.

The film features 17-year-old Alex Zivojinovich—better known as Alex Lifeson of RUSH—and even captures the future guitar legend playing his tobacco sunburst Gibson ES-335!

And there’s a perfect connection to this week’s Guitargument. Alex mentions being paid $80 a night for a gig in the early 1970s. Adjusted to 2026 dollars, that's roughly $626 Canadian—or about $451 U.S.!

More than half a century later, are some working musicians actually earning LESS per gig?

🎬 OUTRO
P.A.F. pickups, Alnico magnets, Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson, RUSH, vintage guitars, acoustic riffs and the economics of playing live—it’s all packed into Episode #070 of the ThroBak Guitar Lounge Podcast.

Subscribe, join the Guitargument and answer this week’s big question:

WOULD YOU TAKE THE $100 BAR GIG?

👉 Explore ThroBak Pickups:
https://www.throbak.com

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