I’d like to share with you a letter I wrote to Kurtis Lamberton, owner of Lambertones, after installing Cremas in my Veritas Mini Master back in 2019.

Dear Kurtis,

I know you’ve seen me raving about the Cremas on Social Media, but I wanted to extend a personal thank you.

I’ve tried nearly everything out there, as I’m sure most of your customers have. I was a bit reluctant to try the Cremas, as I’ve been a happy client of another pickup manufacturer for a while now. “Nothing new under the sun…”, was my mantra.

I was to the point of selling a guitar of mine. Didn’t like the pickups, wanted to try a new guitar—that old thing. Figured it was a good time to explore something new altogether.

However, just to be sure prior to making the leap, I decided to swap the pickups (traditional PAFs) to something that was more in my wheelhouse: a humbucker with the articulation, clarity and sparkle of a single coil. I traditionally have used Lollar El Rayos to accomplish this, and have been very pleased. Great pickups, without doubt. But a buddy of mine, Tommy Zegers, recommended the Cremas. He knows my tastes, and assured me I would love them.

As you know, I took the plunge. Needless to say, I am floored. Context may help here: I’m a pedalboard into two Kempers guy. I have found the Kemper to be very picky about pickups, and it absolutely LOVES the Cremas. I consider myself a dynamic player in that I use pick attack to my advantage.

I pick feather light to gladiator hard, so I need a pickup that responds positively to both approaches. I also LOVE gain. I run my Kempers really hot on their own, and use my picking hand and guitar’s volume to clean things up. I love goosing the already-hot Kemper with drive pedals of various kinds, so I need a pickup that will kind of let the pedals and the Kemper do their thing, without trying to elbow it’s way too much into the mix and clogging up an already busy guitar signal (delay, tons of ‘verb, lots of drive and everything else I throw in there).

The Cremas deliver in spades. I can layer pedals and still get crazy amounts of articulation. It’s astounding, really. The Cremas took that guitar from “Meh. Looks great. Feels great. Sounds…okay.” to “I’m immediately ordering another set for my other guitar that sounds, well, ‘Meh’” I’m confident it will wake that guitar up as well. Can’t wait.

I’m so pleased that the Cremas may end up in 3-4 of my guitars before it’s over. So, thank you. 

In the end, when I don’t have to fight with my sound, I’m more free to worship God. And that’s all I really care about.

Blessings,

Troy Trahan