A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

Pierre

Pierre

Stratologist
I've tried it today a bit more thoroughly than before but I haven't had time to do a real marathon of tests yet. However...

This pickup gets crunchier with the more gain you give it! If you use it with a very high gain amp you can get a very characterial metal tone. People I believe would often favorise the Hotrails for high gain application, but the Coolrails is fantastic even for that. I'll check it out tomorrow a bit more to see the string definition and find a good EQ for it.

Meanwhile, all the CR lovers can tell us their impressions, especially those who tried it with high gain amps for metal.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

I'm not a Cool Rails user but in the same sense, I prefer the sound of lower output pickups hitting high gain amps. It sound cleaner and more defined to me. Hence why I like the Little '59 and DMZ PAF a lot.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

I still think its one of Duncans most unique pups. As soon as my pup "discovery" journey is over, I'll have another set back. ;)

"Take good care of my bay . . . beeee . . . ."
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

I've got a cool rails in the neck position of my Peavey. Awesome pickup for all kinds of music. I love it for rhythm.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

I use the bridge cool rail in the neck of my charvel, through a jcm800 boosted with a Rocktron overdrive.
It sounds absolutley amazing, great clearity, but still very full sounding as well.
Also balances great with the jb in the bridge.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

I have a strat with CR all around. I run them in parallel for a lot
of sparkle and quack and punmp up the amp for a blues tone.
Definately a cool pickup. (Referring to another thread, I'm probably
going to get a new pickguard and redo the wiring with
three on-off-on switches : parallel, off, SC.)
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

My favorite neck pickup. Period. Smooth, buttery, complex, and a very vowel-like open quality. I much prefer it to the HR, which I find rather harsh and very tight. I'd LOVE a cool rails for tele. I think it'd be a perfect tele lead pickup for moderate gain applications.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

rocksoldier said:
I use the bridge cool rail in the neck of my charvel, through a jcm800 boosted with a Rocktron overdrive.
It sounds absolutley amazing, great clearity, but still very full sounding as well.
Also balances great with the jb in the bridge.
Click to expand...

+1

perfect match for the JB:banana:
I have the same combo in my Jackson DK2 and couldn't be more happier.
JUST PERFECT
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

It's a great pup and if you don't mind I will compare and contrast to my other favorite pup, the barden S- Both work well in all 3 positions, and both can get relatively good classic strat sounds with low gain, both split well with other pups, and both sound very nice parallel to themselves.

I characterize the barden as clean and detailed, and the cool rails as a bit more punchy and considerably more 'slurred'-

But as Pierre pointed out, the real difference is when you crank them up- The bardens remain rather clear and when they break up, they get fuzzy, but remain clear.

The cool rail on the other hand, should probalby be named the 'almost hot rail' as it starts to break up at lower volumns, and by the time it's on full it's really distorted- And some find this hard to beleive, but I get almost exactly the same volume from my neck cool rail as I get from my bridge JB. The barden isn't nearly that powerful.

One other pup I would contrast is the demarzio cruiser. Probalby closer to the cool rail at low voumn, it never really crunches up, so it's less of a cruncher than the barden.

One suprise from this thread- Beacuse of these characteristics, I would have imagined cool rails as one of the best modern rock and blues neck pups, but would have never imagined that it would handle metal- Shows you that I dont spend much time in that end of the spectrum!

Good input!
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

Remember though, the pickup isn't really crunching, it's just helping the amp crunch better. :)

Distortion pickups are called such because they have such a hot signal hitting the amp, they cause the amp to break up. Low output pickups keep the amp clean when clean or the break up isn't as much because of the opposite, not such a hot signal hitting the amp. There is no pickup with built-in distortion. It just seems that way.

From your description, it sounds like the Cool Rails has some very diverse characteristics to it.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

Xeromus said:
Very underrated. One of seymour's best pups.
Click to expand...

I agree about the underrated part. I can't say whether it is one of his best (I still haven't tried enough of them to say that), but it *is* great IMHO.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

ERIKH-
Yep you are dead on- Shouldn't throw the terms aroudn so loosley- But all things even, coolrail will drive an amp with a lower gain setting than the bardens.

Yeah, the cool rail is veyr diverse- If you are after clean strat to really crunched strat, it's about the best in my book. If you want to go from clean and sparkeling strat, to more a detailed, but full band humbucker (think classic minibcuker) then the barden may be the better choice.

Also, see my other threads- There's a ton of versitility in these pups when you spin a split and paralelle them-
Cheers
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

No worries, Zion. I knew what was meant, just making it clearer for others because, well, some actually think there is built-in distortion in pickups...lol.

Anyway, the Cool Rails is one I haven't tried. In fact, I haven't tried any of the rails. The Little '59 is the only little bucker that I've played, and have, and I love it. From the output levels of the CR, they look like they'd compliment the Little '59 very well, at least 2 neck models in the neck/middle with the Little '59 in the bridge. But, I'm not changing that Strat anytime soon. I'm loving the Zhang Rewinds I have in there now.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

zionstrat said:
The cool rail on the other hand, should probalby be named the 'almost hot rail' as it starts to break up at lower volumns, and by the time it's on full it's really distorted- And some find this hard to beleive, but I get almost exactly the same volume from my neck cool rail as I get from my bridge JB. The barden isn't nearly that powerful.
Click to expand...

The cool rails is higher output than most rails designs. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was the "almost hot rails" becasue the voicings are not really even very close.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

I see what you mean ErikH. That's why I mentioned I used it with a high gain preamp, to clarify that the amp does the work :D I didn't know about the crunch though... By crunch though I mean the overall grainyness, if you see what I mean.
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

Pierre said:
I see what you mean ErikH. That's why I mentioned I used it with a high gain preamp, to clarify that the amp does the work :D I didn't know about the crunch though... By crunch though I mean the overall grainyness, if you see what I mean.
Click to expand...
I know exactly what you mean. My DMZ PAF behaves similarly. It cleans up really nice, has a nice crunchy property to it. I think that's from the A5 myself. The CC's are smoother, don't bring out the crunch so much but it's still there with the right amp settings.

But at the same time, if they're plugged in to an angry beehive, one is an A5 angry beehive and the other is an A2 angry beehive. :laugh2:
 
Re: A VERY quick comment on the CoolRails...

MikeS said:
The cool rails is higher output than most rails designs. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it was the "almost hot rails" becasue the voicings are not really even very close.
Click to expand...
yep- exactly- i was just suprised at the output
 
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