“Ironically, the slightly bland exterior hides the huge pickup-swapping potential… you can voice the guitar for different gigs – hey, even different songs”: Cream T Crossfire Standard review

What is it?

It’s just three years since we first got our hands on a Cream T Crossfire, and barely had the paint dried before the manufacturing hub that made it, UKGB, got hit and went down.

To be honest, it seems longer, not least that Cream T dusted down, found a new UK manufacturing partner and simply carried on.

Since then we’ve seen a Mk II version of the brand’s first electric guitar, the set-neck Aurora, while its first new post-UKGB design was the mainstream super-S Polaris, followed by the T-style Astra ‘Decades’, which features some quite inspired and unique circuitry.

These models have all been limited in numbers and some, but not all, use the Guitar-X (originally Relish) pickup-swapping system where you can swap a pickup in seconds to instantly revoice the guitar. All good.

For the start of 2025, however, Cream T announced the Standard series – including the Polaris, Astra and the returning Crossfire, which will retail at $1,999/£1,499. All three new Standards also feature the same dual humbucking-size pickup-swapping facility, too.

The guitars are still made in the UK and come with their own logo’d padded gigbags, which remind us of the Mono products. ‘Standard’ seems a rather uninspired catch-all when these instruments are absolute shoo-ins for any working musician.

To remind ourselves of the Crossfire, it’s a smart and simple guitar that’s loosely based on a Fender offset, with a solid and lightweight obeche body and typical contouring front and back.

The neck reverts to a plain untinted slab-sawn maple neck (the first Crossfire we looked at featured quarter-sawn figured and roasted maple) that screws to the body; the original version used proper bolts. There’s a round-nosed heel but no neckplate as those screws sit in thick washers in quite deeply drilled holes.

Fingerboards are either rosewood or maple (as here), very cleanly crafted with simple dot inlays and well-fettled medium‑gauge frets on a 305mm to 356mm (12 to 14-inch) compound radiused fingerboard face. As with the previous Astra and Polaris, truss rod adjustment is via a spoke wheel at the body end of the neck.

We get some smart rear-locking Gotoh tuners with dual-height string posts, and an equally good-looking walled bridge with six block saddles and Tele-style through-body stringing. Despite its offset inspiration, though, there’s no sign of a vibrato version as yet.

In terms of the pickups and electrics, there’s very little offset style to be seen here, either. Our Crossfire came with a pair of Cream T Hot Sauce covered humbuckers, plus a third pickup – a new P-90 single coil designed to be used in either neck or bridge positions and called the Nidge. Geddit? But if that trio doesn’t suit you, you can choose any three Cream T Guitar-X pickups when you place your order.

Along with the quite closely placed master volume and tone controls is a Free-Way selector switch, as found on the original Crossfire. It’s actually a three-position switch, but the lever wobbles between humbucking (down) and split single-coil (up) modes.

Specs

• PRICE: From $1,999/£1,499/€1,655 (inc gigbag)
• ORIGIN: UK
• TYPE: Double-cutaway, offset solidbody electric
• BODY: Obeche
• NECK: Maple, C profile, bolt-on
• SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
• NUT/WIDTH: Synthetic/42.6mm
• FINGERBOARD: Maple, black dot inlays, measured 305-356mm (12-14”) radius
• FRETS: 22, medium
• HARDWARE: Hardtail walled bridge with block steel saddles and through-body stringing, Gotoh Magnum Lock rear-locking tuners (SG381 MG-T) – nickel/chrome-plated
• STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52.5mm 
• ELECTRICS: Cream T Hot Sauce bridge and neck covered humbuckers (with Guitar-X mounts), 6-way Free-Way lever pickup selector switch (3B3-01), master volume and tone controls. Also included is the Cream T Nidge single coil (for either neck or bridge positions). See Options
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.19/7
• OPTIONS: Rosewood fingerboard (no charge). You can choose any 3 Cream T Guitar-X pickups, at order, to power your Standard 
• RANGE OPTIONS: The new Standard range also includes the Astra and Polaris, both with the same features and price as the Crossfire
• LEFT-HANDERS: Not currently
• FINISHES: Etna Blue (as reviewed), Black, Shell Pink, Trans Midnight, Vintage White, Surf Green – gloss finish body, satin neck/fingerboard
• CONTACT: Cream T Custom Shop

Playability and sounds

The combination of the downsized outline and the body wood offers a very comfortable offset, with a good weight that doesn’t feel insubstantial.

While it would certainly suit a more vintage-feeling neck and fingerboard, the more modern vibe here doesn’t spoil the party.

It has a pretty standard width and mainstream modern depth (21.6mm at the 1st fret, 22.8mm at the 12th), and the classic ‘C’ profile is nicely done and feels very good, not least with its satin finish.

Strumming unplugged, there’s a good lively ring and response – this is a very inviting guitar, and without an offset’s vibrato it’s more direct sounding, too. With the Hot Sauce humbuckers in place, we have a pretty powerful, girth-some voice combined with even a fairly lightly gained amp sound.

You do lose a little of the high-end with the volume pulled back – some players would definitely prefer a treble bleed circuit on the volume control – but if your tastes lie in the classic-to-contemporary heavier blues and rock areas, then these play very well.

Selecting the coil-splits (to voice the outer screw coils) is very fast, cleaning things up and lifting the apparent treble response, which becomes quite present. You can’t split the pickups individually to combine full neck humbucker with split bridge, for example, but the simple drive of the Free-Way switch is definitely part of the appeal here.

And it doesn’t stop there. The beauty of the pickup swapping is that we can place the Nidge, for example, in the bridge position and we instantly have a rather different guitar.

We’re fans of Cream T’s covered Duchess P-90 and this Nidge is pretty similar, but to our ears it has a little more sparkle and works well with either Hot Sauce, especially when they’re split – change a few amp sounds and effects and you’re into a different sonic territory.

And if, like us, you’re into this pickup-swapping lark, we can tell you that this Crossfire is quite the platform.

For example, with a pair of Cream T’s Whiskerbuckers installed, it sounds dangerously close to that ‘Tele on Steroids’ cliché, while a Banger & Mash at the bridge with a loud pretty clean amp voice is a righteous old honky and biting blues wail that’s quite some way from where we started this sound test.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★★

Despite Cream T’s web address (www.creamtcustomshop.com), there’s very little ‘custom shop’ about this guitar. It comes across as a very well-made production instrument – and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Shape aside, there’s very little ‘offset’ about it, either, but it’s a great player with an excellent gig-ready weight and lively resonance. It’s very fit for purpose and, style-wise, could easily sit in plenty of musical genres without your band leader or MD telling you that your guitar looks wrong for the gig.

Ironically, this slightly bland exterior hides the huge pickup-swapping potential, meaning you can voice the guitar for different gigs – hey, even different songs. That might be a bit of a stretch on a gig, but for the writing and recording musician who needs to cover different sounds and styles, there might not be a better tool out there.

To enjoy the potential, you’ll need to buy additional pickups from around £139 each. But you can slowly build up an arsenal of sounds, plus the Guitar-X mounted pickups would work with any pickup-swapping Cream T guitar and others such as the Cream T-made Newman line, which will have a six-string dual-pickup-swapping model later this year. Other brands like Maybach are also planning to offer Guitar-X compatible guitars.

Guitar World verdict: It’s not only good to have the Crossfire back, but in this new, very attractively priced Standard range, it has to be worth a punt – along with the Polaris and Astra. It’s dangerously close to being a very viable new way to buy into a guitar and pickup brand, and a high-quality one at that.

Hands-on videos

Andrew Baena

This Guitar Let’s You CHANGE PICKUPS INSTANTLY (Cream T Pickups) - YouTube

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