OK, so a while back I posted a thread asking if anyone had tried pickups from The Creamery, a boutique pickup/guitar manufacturer in Manchester, UK. I was checking out options for upgrading the stock pups in my 5120 and was attracted by the idea of handwound replacements. There wasn't much repsonse beyond the usual "get yourself TVJones". Anyway, I took a risk and ordered some filtertron-style "Swing-O's". These are humbucker sized, so they dropped pretty much straight into the existing mounts on the 5120. Time from order to delivery; under three weeks (from the UK to NZ).
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In a word, they are FANTASTIC. I've upgraded humbuckers and single coils before, but I've never had pups make this much dfference before. I now have no envy for any of the good sound samples I have heard online, and this guitar now sounds as good as the filtertron-equipped Gretschs I've played and heard in person. I was a bit nervous departing from the tried and true, but the "Swing-Os" have exceeded my best expectations. And my Fender Twin has never sounded as good as in this combination.:D

Hats off to Mr Jaime Campbell at The Creamery. When I finally get around to playing my other guitars again, I will be looking at his other pickups to make them sing, too. Before anybody asks for sound samples; sorry, I'm not set up to produce these (something I'll try to fix). If anyone else is interested, here's the link:

http://www.at-the-creamery.co.uk/

OK, so a while back I posted a thread asking if anyone had tried pickups from The Creamery, a boutique pickup/guitar manufacturer in Manchester, UK. I was checking out options for upgrading the stock pups in my 5120 and was attracted by the idea of handwound replacements. There wasn't much repsonse beyond the usual "get yourself TVJones". Anyway, I took a risk and ordered some filtertron-style "Swing-O's". These are humbucker sized, so they dropped pretty much straight into the existing mounts on the 5120. Time from order to delivery; under three weeks (from the UK to NZ).
15746
In a word, they are FANTASTIC. I've upgraded humbuckers and single coils before, but I've never had pups make this much dfference before. I now have no envy for any of the good sound samples I have heard online, and this guitar now sounds as good as the filtertron-equipped Gretschs I've played and heard in person. I was a bit nervous departing from the tried and true, but the "Swing-Os" have exceeded my best expectations. And my Fender Twin has never sounded as good as in this combination.:D

Hats off to Mr Jaime Campbell at The Creamery. When I finally get around to playing my other guitars again, I will be looking at his other pickups to make them sing, too. Before anybody asks for sound samples; sorry, I'm not set up to produce these (something I'll try to fix). If anyone else is interested, here's the link:

http://www.at-the-creamery.co.uk/


How pricey were they. I like many of the UK small manufacturers (like Bareknuckle) but they are costly.

Yeah. I looked at their scatter-wound P90s, but they are exorbitant.

Check out the website for the prices. My filtertron-styled replacements came in considerably cheaper than TVJones, which was my initial option. Even with postage costs from UK to NZ it was cheaper than the single SD PAF I had imported from the US for my 335.
I was after something a bit special and I was really pleased with what I got. I took a punt and waited until I got the pups in the guitar before I posted here. At the end of the day, it's just my ears and my criteria... I'm just saying if a good handwound pickup rings your bell, rather than an off-the-shelf replacement, consider what Jaime has to offer.:)

On a related note, last night I read with interest Roger Mayers comments about Hendrix's rig in a recent article in Guitar World. He was dismissive of the importance sometimes given to pickups, but he did make the point that about 7000 windings (as per Leo's first single coils) was optimum for clarity and good top end tone. I've been trending toward less-overwound pickups for awhile, so Jaime's description of his "Swing-O's" caught my eye. Next I would look at his P-90s for my 335.

Okay, so I finally got my act together and took some shots of my guitar. You can see my two mods; the ss compton and the Creamery Swing-O pickups. Just loving this guitar.:D
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