rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

[zionstrat]

Folks-
Thanks for all of your input when I was selecting pups for my maple parker nitefly- I was looking primarily for a gilmore/knophler sound with lots of other sounds and it looks like we got 2 out of 3 dead on- The JB in the bridge handles humb duty well and splits extremely well with the Dmzo cruiser- The cruiser turned out to be the suprise pup- I'd heard lots of great things about the JB, but the crusier turned out to be the perfect middle poistion pup for everythign I do-

The only pup that's not perfect is the cool rail, and even it works well under certain conditions- It turns out that most of the time I have been running 3coils on due to my coil roll off pot, and in this position, it provides a good quack in 4 and and relatively undifined phasey, but very usable sound.

However, thanks to Artie, I recognised that I wasn't getting all of the 'traditional' settings due to my coil roll offs and I put in a in push pull yesterday and found out (at least in my parker) that the cool rails is actually very agressive- It's louder than the JB, and even dropped as low as possible overdrives much earlier than the crusier or the JB- From specs I wouldn't have expected this much power and wonder if anyone else has had similar experience?

I'm a bit torn on where to go here because I really like dual rails for the roll off that I use about 80% of the time, but the vintage and Dbuster aren't true dual rails (and weren't offered as 4 conducters when I made did my mod)- I may just keep it, since it does sound good in the '3 coil on' mode- But haven't given up-

Anyone have any ideas on what I might try? Obviously could go for another cruiser, but couldn't trade it in- Would rather go with SD, but there really aren't a lot of options for this sound with dual rails and roll of are there?

 

[jmcorey]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

How about a second cruiser? Leave them soldered where they are and just flip them around to see if you like the cruiser by itself.

I think that the Cool Rails is like a true HB in rails form. Probably would go really well in bridge.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

JM- You convinced me- It's a 30 minute swap and would be really dumb not to try it- Will let you know what I find out-

 

[tone4days]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

yeah, the duck and VR came wired internally in parallel .. they are 4 wire now so you can wire them up internally for series to get a little more juice outta them ...dunno how they sound when they are wired for series (my duck is parallel)

let us know what you come up with

cheers,
t4d

 

[zionstrat]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

thanks tone-
now that the 4 condutors are out there, had considered trying them, but not thinking i would get the coil roll of sound that i love so much- If I'm understanding correctly they are split like a Pbass pup and all I could do would be to roll off trebble or bass side as opposed to thining the sound- Am I getting this right?

Here's a radical idea- I've never played wiht magnets at all, but would it be possible to replace the ceramic mag with a less powerful mag? Or is it the winds that are making the cool rail so hot? Considering I want less brite would alnico 2 be possible? Wouldnt have a clue where to get a magnet or how to do this-

 

[jmcorey]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

Probably the winds making the cool rail so hot, take off that ceramic magnet and you'll get mud city.

 

[jmcorey]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

Could also put the cool rails in parallel. Should be similar to a Vintage Rails (But not exactly, since on the VR 1/2 of each bar is not conductive.)

 

[Artie]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

Let me offer this little 2-cents-worth:

Don't let the idea of "traditional" get in the way of your tone. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. If the 3-in-parallel connection worked - do it.

The Cool Rails was my first "little" humbucker. Its here to stay. And, I think I'm going to restore the 2-in-parallel wiring that I had. Its a really cool sound. You and me may be the only ones who get to enjoy it. (Besides our audience.) :laugh2:

 

[zionstrat]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

Right on Artie- Don't get me wrong, I spend 80% of my time in the 3 coil paralel spin split and can't imagine living without it- It's set up as the default 'pot down' setting on the push pull- So I'm already very happy with what I have-

It's just the fact that there are 2 new positions that is boarderline useless for me, ie traditional wiring in 4 and 5 and I guess I'm just imagining that I could have even more fleibility than I was orginally planning on- Although I've never used the sound before, I just think about the potential

But sounds like you have confirmed that magnet change would not be logical, so I'm going to try the CR/Crusier swap first to see how I like the cruiser in the neck and consider the paralel idea next- But considering everything else I have in this mod, can't imagine that I can get this pup paralel to itself and get the roll off as well-

I really just need to be happy with what I have
M

 

[Artie]

Re: rethinking cool rails- You ideas?

Right on Artie- Don't get me wrong, I spend 80% of my time in the 3 coil paralel spin split and can't imagine living without it . . .

Cool. For some reason, I was thinking that you undid that. It is a cool sound.