software

How does the Cruiser compare to the CR?

I want a CR on my strat but some guy is selling his Cruiser at a great price! I'm seriously considering the cruiser. I'm gonna put it on the bridge position. And it's a 1990 American Standard Strat.

Thanks!
I've got a neck cruiser in the middle position so I can't give you perfect apples to oragnes-

But I love it on my maple nitefly and compare contrast to the cool rails (neck pos) this way-

The cruiser is the most 'balanced' middle strat pup I have ever played with perfect classic strat sound in a dual blade- Very clean and perfect split with JB in bridge for 2 position quack- Also one of the few middle position alone pups I have ever liked, but see more about spin a split below.

I expected coolrails to be very similiar to teh cruiser, but they are very very differnt pups (at least in my nitefly) CR is very bright and powerful..It breaks before my JB if you can imagine that, and it's not just fast crunch, it's pretty extreme- Near HB crunch levels- MAyb this is hto for a CR, but I have it set as far away from strings as possible to get clean sounds.

At first I didn't think the CR would work for me (mainly knophler/gilmore sounds off of this gtr), but turned out to be pefect because I use a spin a split that covers the CR and the cruiser and boy did it make the differnce-

On the nightfly, the red and whites from cruiser and Coolrail ground out on a single spin a split (I have a push pull that bypasses spin a plit as well) My JB splits seprately off of the 5 way-

Effectively what the spin a split is doing is this.. it rolls off the 2nd coils of whatever are selected...but it gives you 2 on coils in the same position-

It's a bit hard to imagine, but here's why I explain all of this-
Crusier works well in any mode, but if you roll most of the 2nd coil out, you are left with just a touch of base, making it a realy clean funky middle pup- Spin a split further incresaes the 2 positon effect as well-

4th position with spin a split is extremely 'phasey' and it knocks the edge off of the CR- The sound is more defined in 5th position, but still doesn't distort easily-

So I use these combinations most of the time-

But when I need a really powerful lead with a bit of an edge to it, all I have to do is to bypass spin a split in poosition 4 or 5- At that point the cool rail recovers its growlful little self and it's kind of like having a blower switch ready to go-

Hope this is helpful!

Wow. I have NEVER found my CR to be bright. It has always been quite dark sounding in LesStrat (mid).

It must be the maple in your Parker.

Yep no doubt maples involved. Could not use Cr anywhere but bridge on this gtr. But jb is slightly bright as well. But cruiser is far more mellow than either.

Yep no doubt maples involved. Could not use Cr anywhere but bridge on this gtr. But jb is slightly bright as well. But cruiser is far more mellow than either.

Being more mellow would actually work for me. The stock pups are just way TOO bright for me. And looking at the tone curves, looks like the Cruiser bridge has an almost identical tone curve but with more output (as expected) and probably more bass (higher DC resistance)?

I wouldn't be doing some crazy (for me) like the spin split thingy. I'm a newbie at doing stuff with my pups

Well if you're a newbie, we'll let you off this once..

But seriously, if you have an excess tone pot sitting in a strat, it's one of the easiest mods, so save it for your next project..

Hope you like the cruiser-

I actually am a newbie as far as guitar electronics is concerned. I've only done...

1. Messing with the wiring on my modifief Epi Rebel.
2. Chaning pups on my RG350DX.
The Cruiser ain't there yet though... I'll check on the seller again