If you’re a serious traditional Strat® player, you probably won’t want to know about pickups with side-by-side coils. But if you’re the player who’s up for something more modern with no 60-cycle hum, string drop-outs or sustain-killing magnet pull, we designed The Cruiser® for you. Harmonic overtones are right where you expect them to be from a “true” single-coil, and the mid-range is open and vocal-sounding. It’s hotter than the traditional single-coil, and the bass strings have a bit more chunk; this is an excellent pickup to combine with medium-output humbuckers, and it maintains its tonal identity with high-gain amps and multiple effects.

Tech Talk

The obvious question about The Cruiser® is “How does it compare to a single-coil sound?” Our feeling is that the unwound strings (“E”, “B”, and “G”) are very close, and the wound strings (“D”, “A”, and low “E”) are fatter-sounding than a true single-coil. There's also a midrange scoop that's unique to the Cruiser Bridge. This is really effective for getting big-sounding chords, because high and low strings sound more spread out from each other. Having a total magnet pull that's about 40% less than standard single-coils also means The Cruiser® can be adjusted much closer to the strings for more power than stock pickups can achieve.

Recommended For

All positions. Bridge position with lower output models in neck and middle, or neck and middle position with a higher output bridge pickup or full-size humbucker.