Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

[noisy humbucker]

I've decided that the Cool Rails are the ideal pickups for the custom Warmoth I'm working on. The full setup will be just a Cool Rails bridge & neck, 3-way switch, 1 volume and 1 push-push tone wired for splitting.

As far as tonewood is concerned, I was almost ready to pull the trigger on Korina hoping it would add a bit of bass and mids but I've pretty much decided I really want ash with a classic butterscotch blonde finish. The main reason I've given up trying to nail the "ideal tonewood" is that the final result is never guaranteed (every piece of wood is different). That and I'll being using high gain more often than not so I'm not sure just how much of a difference it would make even if I did score the "perfect" slab so I might as well go with what's visually appealing.

Using the CR set in my alder strat I loved them, but would often dial the tone back ever so slightly to give me more of a "full humbucker" sound. This has me thinking of the possibility of using pot values other than 500k.

Long story short (too late), did I give up on picking a tonewood too quickly? Would using 250k volume and tone pots give me the sound I'm looking for? I'm still relatively new to passives but am loving the journey, I just really can't afford tons of experimentation.

Thanks all,
Noisy

 

[Artie]

Re: Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

Welcome to the forum. I love your idea of using a pair of Cool Rails. They're one of my favorite Strat pickups. Since they were designed to be drop-in replacements for Strats, they were also designed to be used with 250k pots. I'd start there.

I'll let someone else address the "wood" issue.

Artie

 

[noisy humbucker]

Re: Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

Something I just now noticed, the push/pull my luthier installed was actually a 500k so there's the first thing I can switch. Maybe having 250k for both pots will warm things up enough even if I use swamp ash?

 

[noisy humbucker]

Re: Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

How about this folks? I know if I stick with the Cool Rails that I'm going to use 250k pots. On the other hand, if I go with Hot Rails in the ash I'd be tempted to try all 500k pots. Anyone try the Hot Rails with 500k pots?

 

[noisy humbucker]

Re: Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

Bump with a new question. So I'm sticking with the Cool Rails set, but I'm tempted to call up the custom shop and order a CR set with Alnico V magnets. Thoughts anyone? Just wondering if that would warm them up without taking too much of the snap/bite.

 

[DreX]

Re: Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

I have a set of Lil Pearly Gates which are like Lil 59's with A5's instead of ceramics. Once I heard the Lil PGs I knew right away why SD chose ceramics for most all of their single coil sized humbuckers. The A5 isn't bad, but it's a hair on the weaker side, and seems to have a wider dynamic range that probably appeals more to single coil fans than humbucker guys who are used to more compressed and ballsy output. I think you'd find the Cool Rails with A5 would sound a little weaker but sweeter when clean, less creamy but having more bite under distortion, and having an overdrive tone tends to be cleaner with good string definition. If you play blues and the like I think it could be a good move, but if you're into classic rock and beyond it would possibly be under powered.

 

[noisy humbucker]

Re: Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

Great info, thanks! I'm just stuck in "analysis paralysis" until I can pull this whole thing together and can actually play it.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: Cool Rails set in a custom guitar

I used 500k push/pull pots for Hot Rails/Cool Rails/Hot Rails in a Squier Strat with good results.

I think the CR will work well with your axe. Try the pickups with the current pots and see how you like it. You can change pots later if needed. The CR is one of my favorite SD pups.