FIRST PLAY
The second design from Cream T’s well-received guitar venture shows off a different direction with some offset style, pickup swapping and an aggressive starting price. Let’s take it for a spin
We documented the development and launch of Cream T’s first guitar, the Aurora, last year and now we have another: the Crossfire. Unlike the more Gibson-esque construction style of the Aurora, the Crossfire is much more ‘Fender’, a straightforward bolt-on with a nod to the fashionable offset style.
Uniquely, the Crossfire Skeleton model, which kicks of the mini-range at £1,799, comes without pickups. What? Well, the Crossfire only uses the Relish pickup swapping system, which is optional on the Aurora, and part of the design concept is to appeal to those customers that may have already purchased a pickup-swapping Aurora, so you can swap its pickups onto the altogether different Crossfire chassis. Next up is the Crossfire Standard at £2,199, which comes with three pickups; both come with a gigbag and a choice of six standard open-pore finishes. The top-tier model is the Crossfire SRT-6 (£2,799) and includes a cream Hiscox hard case and four pickups, with a choice of three flashier satin metallic colours and optional racing stripes in silver or gold at no extra cost.
With an Original Banger at the bridge, the character changes to a rootsy snarl – quite possibly the best ‘Broadcaster’ voice imaginable
Made in the UK by manufacturing hub UK Guitar Builders (UKGB), which also makes PJD Guitars and the soon-to-bereleased Seth Baccus Shoreline models, the Crossfire has plenty in common with PJD’s Standard models, not least the offset St John. But aside from a different and downsized offset outline, the Crossfire, which retains a long Fender scale length, is all-solid (not chambered) and uses lightweight obeche for its body that’s finished here in a very light, opengrained nitrocellulose.
There are plenty more similarities to be found, too, including the quarter-sawn roasted maple neck with its separate fingerboard of the same material (rosewood is optional) that uses PJD’s well-received 254mm to 305mm (10- to 12-inch) compound radius. Crucially, like PJD, the neck uses proper bolts that sit in recessed holes on the small contoured heel, but the headstock is frankly a little more Fenderlike, despite the laser-cut Cream T logo, along with simple black dots for position markers. Elsewhere, you’ll find the same high-quality Gotoh tuners and six‐saddle through-strung bri
