THE LONG GAME

There’s little doubt that a new set of pickups will be the significant cost in any upgrade you plan, and there is no shortage of pickup makers, large and small, who are happy to relieve us of our hard-earned. The pickup’s role as a transducer is remarkably simple, but in line with virtually every aspect of our instrument, it’s been turned into high art – and then some! The thing is, a pickup – much like a set of tuners or a bridge – is pretty damn useless without the rest of the guitar.

The classic guitar recipes have given us some pretty clear and defined sounds yet it’s all too easy to assume that certain elements are more responsible for the sounds we hear than others. The final sound we have coming out of our guitar is not just that of the pickup, even though our perception often says it is.

Chatting to pickup maker Thomas Nilsen, the man behind Cream T, earlier in the year, I must say I was fascinated. His rock-star associations, particularly the patronage of Billy F