Thomas Nilsen guitar repairs/pickups/effects

DiscoStu

Anyone heard of Thomas Nilsen? He's worked with some big names (Billy Gibbons, Slash, Mark Knopfler, Lenny Kravitz), is originally from Norway but has recently relocated to my neck of the woods up by the Moray Firth in N.E. Scotland.

I hadn't heard of him but lots of my friends are buzzing that he's up here and open for business.

He builds his own pickups under the Cream-T name and has also built guitars, and has a line of effect pedals coming soon ...

FelineGuitars

I've messaged with him in the past, but no first hand experience really.

Philly_Q

There have been a couple of Cream T guitars in the classifieds here.  They have a slightly squashed Les Paul kind of shape.

rlw

I don’t think he’s anything to do with Cream T any longer.  That’s all gone to Sound Affects in Ormskirk.
But he clearly knows what he’s doing.

Grampa

Got a set of his early hand wound Whiskerbuckers, absolutely superb pickups based on BFG's 1959 Pearly Gates LP. A big step up from SD Pearly Gates humbuckers.

DiscoStu

Aye he's got a decent C.V., I just hadn't heard his name before, or Cream-T for that matter.
He's just posted on Facebook about pickups he's just made for Johnny Depp.
Mad that he's just (sort of) down the road from me.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555384587881

blueskunk

DiscoStu said:

Aye he's got a decent C.V., I just hadn't heard his name before, or Cream-T for that matter.
He's just posted on Facebook about pickups he's just made for Johnny Depp.
Mad that he's just (sort of) down the road from me.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555384587881

My mate sold JD four ounce of high grade grass,  last time he was in London. 

DrBob

There’s an episode of the GuitarNerds podcast where they interview Thomas I think 2021 ? 

DiscoStu

DrBob said:

There’s an episode of the GuitarNerds podcast where they interview Thomas I think 2021 ? 

Cool, I'll take a look

timmypix

rlw said:

I don’t think he’s anything to do with Cream T any longer.  That’s all gone to Sound Affects in Ormskirk.
But he clearly knows what he’s doing.

He appears to have left Cream T a couple of years ago. Given that Cream T's whole USP was him using his mysterious scanner on famous pickups and winding the pickups to match, it does beg the question: who's making Cream T pickups now?

rlw

timmypix said:

rlw said:

I don’t think he’s anything to do with Cream T any longer.  That’s all gone to Sound Affects in Ormskirk.
But he clearly knows what he’s doing.

He appears to have left Cream T a couple of years ago. Given that Cream T's whole USP was him using his mysterious scanner on famous pickups and winding the pickups to match, it does beg the question: who's making Cream T pickups now?

Cream T pickups and guitars is all Sound Affects now.  Whether the pickups are done in the same way remains to be seen but I don't think they are.

FelineGuitars

rlw said:

timmypix said:

rlw said:

I don’t think he’s anything to do with Cream T any longer.  That’s all gone to Sound Affects in Ormskirk.
But he clearly knows what he’s doing.

He appears to have left Cream T a couple of years ago. Given that Cream T's whole USP was him using his mysterious scanner on famous pickups and winding the pickups to match, it does beg the question: who's making Cream T pickups now?

Cream T pickups and guitars is all Sound Affects now.  Whether the pickups are done in the same way remains to be seen but I don't think they are.

The recent stuff has been great and the 2 new models I have seen (Cream of the Crop and Hot Sauce) have been amongst the best I have seen from them. 

I hear that there has been work going on to develop the "scanner" into a more full featured device with greater capability, but I will leave it to them to share info when the time is right.

rlw

That's good then; I thought that the scanner was a brilliant idea and was keen to see further devlopments.

timmypix

FelineGuitars said:

rlw said:

timmypix said:

rlw said:

I don’t think he’s anything to do with Cream T any longer.  That’s all gone to Sound Affects in Ormskirk.
But he clearly knows what he’s doing.

He appears to have left Cream T a couple of years ago. Given that Cream T's whole USP was him using his mysterious scanner on famous pickups and winding the pickups to match, it does beg the question: who's making Cream T pickups now?

Cream T pickups and guitars is all Sound Affects now.  Whether the pickups are done in the same way remains to be seen but I don't think they are.

The recent stuff has been great and the 2 new models I have seen (Cream of the Crop and Hot Sauce) have been amongst the best I have seen from them. 

I hear that there has been work going on to develop the "scanner" into a more full featured device with greater capability, but I will leave it to them to share info when the time is right.

Would you say they look like they've been built in the UK or further afield?

FelineGuitars

timmypix said:

FelineGuitars said:

rlw said:

timmypix said:

rlw said:

I don’t think he’s anything to do with Cream T any longer.  That’s all gone to Sound Affects in Ormskirk.
But he clearly knows what he’s doing.

He appears to have left Cream T a couple of years ago. Given that Cream T's whole USP was him using his mysterious scanner on famous pickups and winding the pickups to match, it does beg the question: who's making Cream T pickups now?

Cream T pickups and guitars is all Sound Affects now.  Whether the pickups are done in the same way remains to be seen but I don't think they are.

The recent stuff has been great and the 2 new models I have seen (Cream of the Crop and Hot Sauce) have been amongst the best I have seen from them. 

I hear that there has been work going on to develop the "scanner" into a more full featured device with greater capability, but I will leave it to them to share info when the time is right.

Would you say they look like they've been built in the UK or further afield?

Oh - the pickups are most certainly wound in Ormskirk. I chat regularly with Richard who is in charge of the winds along with Alan and we talk in way too much detail about the intricacies of the winding machines he uses and the software that runs it for it to be any other way. 

When UKGB closed down the extra UKCNC winding machines they had also ended up back at Cream T, so they have a few lined up and running.

timmypix

FelineGuitars said:

timmypix said:

FelineGuitars said:

rlw said:

timmypix said:

rlw said:

I don’t think he’s anything to do with Cream T any longer.  That’s all gone to Sound Affects in Ormskirk.
But he clearly knows what he’s doing.

He appears to have left Cream T a couple of years ago. Given that Cream T's whole USP was him using his mysterious scanner on famous pickups and winding the pickups to match, it does beg the question: who's making Cream T pickups now?

Cream T pickups and guitars is all Sound Affects now.  Whether the pickups are done in the same way remains to be seen but I don't think they are.

The recent stuff has been great and the 2 new models I have seen (Cream of the Crop and Hot Sauce) have been amongst the best I have seen from them. 

I hear that there has been work going on to develop the "scanner" into a more full featured device with greater capability, but I will leave it to them to share info when the time is right.

Would you say they look like they've been built in the UK or further afield?

Oh - the pickups are most certainly wound in Ormskirk. I chat regularly with Richard who is in charge of the winds along with Alan and we talk in way too much detail about the intricacies of the winding machines he uses and the software that runs it for it to be any other way. 

When UKGB closed down the extra UKCNC winding machines they had also ended up back at Cream T, so they have a few lined up and running.

That's good to hear!

SAM123

Hi, Cream T Custom Shop here, just to clear a couple of bits up. 

Thomas left Cream T a couple of years ago, but all processes, designs and equipment passed over to the new Cream T Custom Shop under my ownership. Richard who previously worked under Thomas was fully trained on making pickups. In reality Thomas made very few pickups himself during the 4 years or so we worked together. And now all our pickups are made here in Ormskirk, UK under Richard's guidance and our guitars are also made in the UK.

We have improved the famed pickup scanner and will be relaunching it soon. We owe a big thanks to Adrian Thorpe of Thorpy FX for some excellent R&D work on the new model which far surpasses the capabilities of Thomas' home made machine.

Lots of new models of pickups coming out as well as some really cool guitars. Richard is designing the pickups and I have just partnered with Cedric Leclerc as my new Creative Director who is designing the guitars. Cedric is the former CEO of Relish Guitars and VP of Global Marketing for Gibson. 

For the record I bought the assets of Relish guitars which liquidated last year as well as access to the patent for pickup swapping so will be continuing that technology within our guitars but also supporting former Relish customers. It will be rebranded, announcements coming soon.

We are also delighted that we are going to be making Newman guitars here in the UK. Set up by Ted Newman-Jones and Keith Richards in the 1970s' - Newman guitars have to date been primarily custom builds in the USA - they are also Billy's current weapon of choice. We are starting with the 5 string which Keef designed and played - very exciting. Expecting to launch around April/May.

Don't often post on here, but read it a lot and saw this thread and just thought it might be helpful to provide some clarity on a couple of bits.

I wish Thomas luck in his new venture with guitar repairs etc.

Tim
Cream T Custom Shop
Sound Affects Music Ormskirk

DiscoStu

Thanks for posting, Tim. That clears up what is and isn't Cream T, and it sounds like you have some exciting things on the horizon which I'm sure we'd love to hear about so you might want to post more often!