Any experience actually using a Dimarzio Cruiser bridge pickup in the bridge?

[starbelly]

Hi all!

I’ve been playing my strat more lately, and part of me is wanting a bit more juice out of the bridge pickup for higher gain, sustaining solo tones. Currently, I have a set of Lollar Dirty Blackface pickups (Special in the bridge, Blackfaces in the middle and neck) and have been considering swapping out the bridge pickup for something like a Dimarzio Cruiser, which I hear work quite well in a strat (Mark Speer and Andy Timmons being my two favorite examples).

Does anyone here have any experience using the Cruiser bridge pickup in the bridge of a strat? How did you like it? How does it interact with the middle pickup in the 2nd position? Any guidance on pot values when putting a Cruiser in the bridge?

 

[Rod]

The Cruiser is a humbucker... great Strat bridge pickup with no hum, fatter mids and higher output. .great for lead work.....

 

[sedawkgrep]

Sure. They sound great, like slightly hot singles sound. And totally quiet. They mix well with cruiser necks obviously, but I don’t know about other strat pickups. Polarity could be an issue if you mix with non-dimarzio.

Also, and this is important- they work best with 500k pots. Most traditional singles will sound shrill with those unless you compensate In the wiring.

IME you’ll do best using all rails (specifically all cruisers) vs. mixing them with other singles. If you need a hotter, thicker, quiet bridge pup to mix with traditional singles, the virtual vintage pickups (areas, virtuals, injectors) will probably be a better fit.

 

[Mpcoluv]

I used a cruiser in a Tele Years ago. It didn’t do the twang much but it did give a,beautiful classic rock lead sound. Great if that is your goal.

 

[starbelly]

Sure. They sound great, like slightly hot singles sound. And totally quiet. They mix well with cruiser necks obviously, but I don’t know about other strat pickups. Polarity could be an issue if you mix with non-dimarzio.

Also, and this is important- they work best with 500k pots. Most traditional singles will sound shrill with those unless you compensate In the wiring.

IME you’ll do best using all rails (specifically all cruisers) vs. mixing them with other singles. If you need a hotter, thicker, quiet bridge pup to mix with traditional singles, the virtual vintage pickups (areas, virtuals, injectors) will probably be a better fit.

I'm going for a more HSS type of sound and versatility. I hadn't considered polarity before, but I've seen others use a Cruiser in the bridge with other pickups in the middle and neck.