The Guitar

I bought 7 6652 from Guitar Village, Top Gear’s sister shop in Shaftesbury Avenue, in August 1972 as a 21st birthday present to myself.
I still had a proper job at the time and was working just around the corner in Covent Garden. A very dear friend of mine, Guy Mason (RIP), was working at GV and I’d asked him to let me know if and when any ‘50s sunburst LP’s came into the shop.
He called me at work and said “We’ve got one”, so I was round there like a shot and, of course, it was a gold top. It was far from immaculate even then but I had to have it.
Sounds like a bargain at £350, but I was probably earning about twenty quid a week at the time.

So, Happy Birthday, me.

I used the guitar extensively during my time with IF, Maggie Bell, Crawler and on all my session work in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Needless to say, it doesn’t come out much anymore.

The following year I got hold of a three-pickup ’58 LP Custom for £400 which I stupidly sold in the early ‘80s for £1k to cover a tax bill, but that’s another story...

If I’d known then what I know now…

The Scanning Process

Thomas Nilsen from Cream T came down to scan the pickups on my ’57 with his magic scanning box. I asked him what it did, he said if he told me he’d have to kill me…
I’ve done some sound clips A/B-ing my original PAFs with the Cream T's and I honestly can’t hear a difference. I have no idea what Thomas is doing, but I hope he carries on doing it…

Geoff Whitehorn

Introducing the ’Super Scanner’ series from Cream T Pickups. Our premium pickup sets are 100% exacting electronic reproductions from the guitars of acclaimed players around the world.

Our third release reproduces the sound of Geoff Whitehorn's famous ’57 Gold Top.

Utilising our patented analog spectrum recorder, developed exclusively here at Cream T Pickups, it is possible to recreate 100% mirror-imaging of legendary pickups across the board. We offer our line of pickups with accurate historical response in our ’Super Scanner’ series, delivering the power and performance of guitar sounds of acclaimed performers, studio session players and stage celebrities known everywhere. The admiration shared by us here at Cream T and the many fans of the stars and their rich, warm recognisable guitars, drew us to develop and offer the new ’Super Scanner’ series.  

• Boxed in bespoke '57 GT packaging
• Comes with a certificate of authentication

Hear the pickups in action!

Watch the video below to hear Geoff Whitehorn play the original '57 Les Paul Gold Top back to back with a guitar loaded with Cream T '57 GT pickups. Can you hear the difference?

Open in YouTube for timestamps to jump to a pickup position.