A magnetic shaft angle encoder uses a gear or toothed wheel for inducing periodic electrical pulses in an inductive pickup. The teeth are evenly spaced and every tooth generates a signal as it passes the pickup. A reference tooth is slightly shorter than the others so that the period of the pulse it generates is shorter than the others and is easily detected to obtain an accurate shaft index position. Since a pulse is produced for every tooth, the pulses provide an excellent means of instantaneous speed sensing.