Suhr

Suhr guitars are some of the best custom strat style guitars you can buy. They are played by people in all types of genres of music. Anyone who plays a Suhr swears by the quality of the guitars they put out. They can build you just about anything you want and you know it will be of the highest quality. When people build guitars like these from scratch you dont want to just throw in some one elses pickups. Companies like that who build everything themselves want to throw in their own pickups specially voiced for their own guitars so the pickups and guitar match together perfectly and maximize the performance of the whole instrument. Doug Aldrich is a famous guitar player most famous for playing in Whitesnake recently. He has his own Suhr pickup which is very popular in the aftermarket world because it is just a good pickup overall. Aldrich and Suhr hooked up to make the best possible pickup for his style of hard rock playing. It is the hottest pickup that Suhr makes. It has a huge sound but doesnt lose focus in being so big. The pickup is super tight, it has a very modern feel to it. It is almost like an active pickup because of how tight it is. The high end is high but somehow it never gets harsh. It is the best kind of high end because it keeps your sound from becoming muddy but it does not make your ears bleed. The low end is super tight and focused and can handle just about anything any other passive pickup can handle. If you are looking for a great hard rock pickup that can play just about anything and is not from the typical pickup companies this pickups is a great choice. More and more people are looking to Suhr not just for guitars but for their guitar parts like these pickups.

American made 6 string electric guitar. Hand made in all the areas you'd want, and machine finished in all the ways that are necessary. PLEK'd as well, as all Suhrs are. Standard superstrat configuration (1 vol/tone/5 way selector). Pickup configuration is wired bridge humbucker, both pickups split, both humbuckers, neck pickup split (my favorite!), neck humbucker. Pickups on this model are SSH+ bridge and SSV neck. Gotoh 510 2 post trem, hipshot open back locking tuners (very bizarre looking but stylish i think), and 24 stainless frets. Body is basswood with a flame maple cap. Neck is maple with pau ferro fingerboard. I do wish it came with a hard shell case, instead of a gig bag. UTILIZATION Suhr's Modern line is a take on the superstrat, maybe a bit more geared for the 'shred' attitude, but still maintains a The Modern body style is a bit interesting feeling at first - I was reminded of a custom shop ESP type feel, but a bit more asymmetrical. The neck also shares this idea, being a bit thicker towards the bass strings and thinning out on the bottom in what they call an 'elliptical radius.' Took about an hour to really get used to, but the results are outstanding. Upper fret access is as effortless as it can get. These guitars are impeccably made. It's awful to think but this guitar has made quite a few of my others obsolete due to the sheer amount of ground this guy can cover. I've had a few guitars with stainless frets before this one but none of them have rocked my world like this has. Right out of the box the guitar was set up perfectly ready to go. The open ended tuners definitely look a little odd to me, but work just fine. SOUNDS I find the guitar to be very very capable of many different tones - which is necessary for me when purchasing a guitar. One trick ponies don't stay in my house too long! Being a strat player primarily this guitar fit me almost immediately. I was most worried about pickup configuration being a problem, but this guitar ending up being wired exactly how I would have ended up setting it up anyway. The tapped neck sound alone is worth the price of admission. It's just strat enough in all the right ways without being too single coil for me. The pickup configuration covers a lot of ground. I would imagine some people would also want a tapped bridge sound, but for me it's a non issue, and the split coils (position 4) is twangy enough on its own. OVERALL OPINION The build quality of this guitar is among the highest I've ever seen, yet at the same time the instrument does not feel like a museum piece. We've all owned those guitars that feel too expensive to play out in the world, but not in this case. The Modern for me seems to fit just right. As beautiful as these guitars are, I have no reservation bringing it out into the world and gigging/teaching/performing with it. It's just too good to sit in a case. The biggest complaint I've seen on these guitars is their price of entry but in this case you really do get what you pay for. I was lucky enough to not have to wait for this guitar (popped up online and I couldn't resist), but I'm told the average wait time for a custom instrument from Suhr is around 9 months. Even still, I'd be happy to wait the time and pay the money for another if I needed to own a second, but honestly I'm very very happy to own just one!

Everyone knows that Suhr is one of the greatest guitar builders out there on the market. They now offer certain guitars at a slightly lower price. The reason they can offer these guitars cheaper is because the process is streamlined due to the lack of customization compared to their 100% custom guitars. The S4 has a basswood body with a flamed maple top, a maple neck and maple fretboard, 22 stainless steel frets, dot inlays, a two point tremolo system, HSS configuration, one volume, one tone and a five way switch. UTILIZATION These guitars are top notch, without a doubt. The fretwork is some of the best in the entire world thanks to Suhr utilizing their PLEK machine. The stainless steel frets are wonderful to bend on, too. They're slick and feel great. The two point trem on this feels very smooth, and it handles dive bombing without much of an issue. It's not as good as a floyd, but you also don't have the hassle that a floyd tends to have. The guitar feels very much like a proper Fender should feel. SOUNDS The S4 differs from the S2 in that this has John Suhr's favorite wood combination -- flamed maple on top of basswood. Basswood usually gets a bad rap from certain foreign companies using lower grades of this wood, but it's really an awesome sounding wood. When you add a flamed maple top to it, it really accentuates the upper end frequencies to help make one hell of a wood combination. Given that basswood tends to sound very middy and lacks some top end, it's a perfect combination of wood. The humbucker in this sounds great, and it's super versatile. You can play anything from country to metal. The neck and middle single coils also deliver a great chime and sound super clear. OVERALL OPINION The S4 is for those who want one of the most versatile guitars that Suhr has to offer in the Pro Series line. Basswood and flamed maple just work out to be a perfect tonal match that's almost unbeatable. These guitars really can do everything, and since this guitar doesn't have a floyd, it's generally more accessible to the average user.

This is a USA made bolt-on superstrat. Specs as follows: •Body: Mahogany w/ angel quilt top •Neck: Mahogany •Fretboard: Rosewood •Neck Shape: Modern Elliptical .780-.830 •Radius: 10"-14" Compound Radius •Nut: Locking •Frets: Jumbo Stainless Steel •Bridge: Gotoh Double-Locking "Floyd" •Hardware: Chrome •Gears: Sperzel Locking •Electronics: Volume, Tone, 5-Way •Knobs: Chrome Metal •Neck Pickup: Aldrich Neck Humbucker •Bridge Pickup: Aldrich Bridge Humbucker •Finish Colors: Fireburst? UTILIZATION This guitar has an all access type neck joint - similiar to a high end Ibanez and all frets are easily accessible and it's great for lead playing. There is a nice variety of sounds available from the two humbuckers and 5-way pick up switch and it is easy to get a nice array of tones. The guitar has perfect balance, a great, thin ergonomic neck and forearm and body cutaways. Very comfortable standing or sitting. I've got the action set at 1/32" all the way across the neck - it is a great and easy player! SOUNDS I use this guitar with custom built Peters amplifiers, which are kind of a cross between a Peavey 5150 and high gain Marshall/VHT with a little Boogie thrown in, a VHT Sig-X and an Egnater MOD 50. The amps were paired with an Avatar 4x12 that had Celestion G12h -30's and a Splawn 4x12 with Governor/ManOWar speaker combo, a Earcandy Buzzbomb 2x12 w/ Scholz speakers and a Mojotone 3x12 w/ Celestion CL-80's. I usually go for a nice thick Jerry Cantrell AIC tone, to use with my modern rock/metal band. This particular guitar and pickup combo is very focused on the upper mids and can get you a mid prominent heavy tone and good cleans. Suits my style of music very well. The pickups/sounds stay very defined even under high gain. I also use this guitar in a few cover bands that I've played in which includes songs from The Rolling Stones, Kings of Leon to RHCP, Poison and System of a Down. It does well with all styles. This guitar has very nice lead tones and nice tight rhythm tones that cut through well. OVERALL OPINION I love just about everything concerning this guitar. I liked it so much I bought a less expensive Suhr Pro Modern, as well. It is an expensive guitar but it is a quality instrument that will last a lifetime. I will rate this overall a 10 for what it is. I just wish Suhr would come out with a Les Paul type bridge or non-trem model for the Modern. The floyd type guitars are knd of a pain sometimes. The thing I like the least about it is the price - but you get what you pay for. If I had to do it again, I would probably just get another Pro version and save $900. The mahogany/Aldrich combo does give it a different tone from the Pro. I have owned many guitars and had a number of years where I would buy, try and flip, which enabled me to have many guitars around to try out. This Pro series Modern is ranked right up there with the best of them in overall satisfaction. This guitar has beat out Ibanez RG's, Charvel/Jackson's, Gibsons, TA's and PRS's that have been in my collection - and I was able to sell them off.

Made In Cali, one piece maple neck with skunk stripe. 6100 frets, h/s/h pick-ups, Gotoh 1088 bridge, locking tuners, chambered ash body with a bent maple top and a cat's eye sound hole. 5 way switch, volume, tone.and a passive mid control on the push pull on the tone control. Big C shape neck, 1 inch at the nut, 10-14 inch radius, 1 11/16 nut width. Tiger Eye burst finish, brown back,scraped binding, satin finish on the neck, plain head stock. UTILIZATION The neck access is good on the heel side, the cutaway cut be a bit more shallow on the back. Was an amazing guitar for Rock tones, The huge neck added to the big sound of the guitar, interestingly enough it never felt like a big neck. The guitar came set-up well, with the usual slight relief in the neck. I prefer straight no relief necks, but that was just a quick 1/4 turn of the truss rod away. SOUNDS This guitar was mostly used with a Mesa Trem-o-verb, THD Series One Plexi, Guytron 100 watter, and 50 watt Marshalls. It excelled with amps that had a good amount of snap like the THD Series One Plexi and/or the mid 70s 50 watt JMP Marshall. A good comparison would be a Les Paul bottom, with a Tele top end snap, and attenuated mids ala 70s Les Paul Custom. The clean sounds with the passive mid control rolled off on the middle single coil where perfect for 70s Funk stuff. And on the neck pick-up for typical 80s clean Ballad type parts. The guitar took very well to bright overdrives like Maxon SD9 type stuff. Tube Screamer's yielded mixed results. With original 808s and 9s where fine, re-issues kinda ended up being a muddy set-up. OVERALL OPINION Good guitar, the one down side was that the nut needed to be re-cut since the high e-string was too close to the edge of the board and when adding vibrato to a note it had a tendency to fall off the board. The finish details on the guitar was amazing.

What you are paying for with this instrument is the build quality and standard of components. Don't expect any case candy or even a fancy case, just a typical g and g type job but a very big centre pocket for storing your nick nacks which is gooood. There is a simple but clear build sheet. I have always been a strat man with a playing style similar to that of Mr K. I have an 80s Schecter ST In my arsenal, an old tele which I never use and threw in a custom shop strat to buy this, which has been a dream of mine for some time. I like and am used to a vintage 60s c profile neck. This guitar has a flat Indian rosewood board. Different but certainly not displeasing. There is a nice shallow draft to the mahogany neck and abalone position markers which are small but can be seen in the ivoroid neck binding in low light. Useful! The stainless steel frets are an excellent choice. Thin and finished perfectly. The body of the guitar is a lovely mahogany (the same as the neck) and is flawlessly made and presented with an angled cutaway heel section. Full ivoroid binding around the solid carved quilted maple cap in a gorgeous caramel colour. So far so good. The guitar is not light, but not too heavy either and given the hardware on board is less weighty than you might expect. All the hardware is gold with the strings nailed down at the nut and into a Gotoh Floyd Rose at the blunt end. Surprisingly, the Floyd was down on the deck when I got this and I had to set it up to float. Mildly annoying on a four grand guitar but I am sure the factory has its reasons. The guitar keeps in tune well and the Floyd is sensitive and does its job well. For me, the wammy bar is a little closer to my picking hand than I'm used to but I can learn to live with that and there is none of the worry of over tightening the arm and wrecking the thread as happens on a traditional strat trem assembly. It seems to function better tuning wise than a two pivot job and the arm seems to sit in just the right area. The only downside of course is that to some, the Floyd is a techy looking unsightly lump and you might find it coming into contact regularly with your picking mitt. Again it's what you're used to. Pickups: two EMG SA and a EMG 85 in the bridge. This is my first guitar with active pickups. The difference in tone and output is frankly incredible...and a little bit devastating. The tones are wonderful, clear rounded with just "more" of everything and the SPC tone control rolls off some brashness very well. The SA85 I think has a very high output and doesn't sit perfectly in my view with the middle pickup for traditional out of phase strat tones. I am having to use middle and neck position to get that. Once you're used to it the bridge pick up will provide a significant boost when selected with a lot of grit and you might not need to engage your overdrive pedal for that blues grind. Indeed, pull the tone pot and your into searing lead mode which feels like a nitrous injection to my ds1 pedal. Be warned though you may find yourself fiddling with the tone and volume control in the middle of your favourite solo to tame the beast. For me the jury is out in terms of working practicality. We will see. So in a nutshell, an expensive, magnificently built instrument oozing class and quality which may take a little getting used to. Oh, and be sure to buy some strap locks first. You wont want to drop this!

Made by John Suhr from the Fender custom shop and Pensa Suhr in Lake Elsinore California. Set-up...alder body, one piece even C shape maple neck, original FLoyd Rose term, 2 Suhr JST single coils, 1 Suhr DSV Humbucker in the bridge, 5 way selector, volume, tone, passive mid control, and on board 9 volt boost. UTILIZATION One of the best playing Suhr guitars I owned. This one was number five. Easy access to higher frets (scalloped) neck heel. Stayed in tune no matter how bad it was abuse. Came set-up super well. SOUNDS This is how a Super STrat should sound, feel and be made. It sounded great for high gain stuff through my usual suspects of amps (Mesa T-verb, VHT D-60, Soldano Avenger, old Marshalls and Fenders). But it also sounded like a good old Strat with the single coils. Which is not all that common when you have a Floyd style bridge. What helped there was that I installed a Tremol-No which makes the guitar sound like a vintage bridge equipped Start. The coolest part was the Alembic Strato-blaster copy boost that was installed. With a vintage amp with the boost on you got lovely crunch, with a crunchy amp with it o it was just searing. Also worth mentioning is the passive mid control, basically a scoop control. Which unlike most folks would assume was not for gain but for clean stuff. Middle single coil with it rolled down is the hippest Funk tone I've come across. Neck and middle pick-up together with it engaged was almost like an acoustic guitar. Very, very nice. All guitars should have that feature. OVERALL OPINION My favorite Suhr I've used. As a matter of fact one of the best Super Strats I played. And it didn't have the inherent Stat with hum bucker in the bridge midrange honk. Suhr did good with this!

The story goes something like this. The best shredder in my arsenal, an RG550 from 1993, used to be outfitted with a set of EMG's. I played it for years. I played the devil out of it. Finally one day one of my pickups went out. I knew it would happen. Tired of active pickups, I decided to switch to some passive ones. After researching a lot of sets at all price points, I decided to roll the die on a set of aldrich pickups from suhr. To be honest I didn't know what to expect. I was told they were aggressive and good for hard rock and metal so that was right up my alley. Considering these are hand wired I think the price is fair. Though we'll see just how good the sound is. Initial testing was done through a Soldano SLO 100 through a mesa standard 412 with vintage 30s in a practice space so I could crank the amp. The first thing that surprised me was how much beef these had. I was told they had a lot of high end and not much bottom going on in the bass but I kind of have to disagree with that. These have a good strong chug in the bass and I had to really lower the bass on my amp to get the bridge pickup to tighten up. But after the amp EQ was dialed up properly they sounded great. The pickups have a nice upper mid bite and a real sizzle to them. Rhythm and lead sounds awesome on the bridge pickup. It's a real high gain monster. Unfortunately I haven't been as impressed with the neck pickup and I feel like i need to adjust the height maybe. It's pretty muddy at times. I feel like maybe I should have a treble boost pedal to use for when I switch to the neck pickup. The good news is they seem to split reasonably well. This is something I like to get out of my high gain humbuckers even if the guitar is more a a shred type. I also tried these with a JCM800 and they did well with that amp too. I'm glad I got these. They seem to be pretty nice especially for the price.

Handbuilt in the USA as far as I know, high gain distortion box meant to be a stack in a box. Meaning you can plug this into any small clean tube amp or big clean tube amp and still get a huge usable stack-like sound. Dist, level and tone knobs with the true bypass switch and also a 3 way mini toggle that shapes the midrange. Also includes an FX link, so you can remotely control the pedal to turn on or off with other switching devices. ALSO the LED itself will flash if the battery is draining. How cool is that? Regular 9v operation, I think my only beef about this pedal is the 3 way midrange toggle, these are basically preset midrange sounds I sort of wish it was a knob so it was sweepable but that's just my thing. UTILIZATION Pretty simple, just like any other normal distortion box! Plug it in, turn the knobs and tweak till it sounds good! SOUND QUALITY So how does it sound? Pretty damn good for what it is. This is probably one of, if not the only distortion pedal that actually doesn't sound like a distortion pedal and sounds as close to as amp distortion that I've ever heard. It doesn't sound boxy, or fizzy or ice-picky it sounds thick, big, rich and warm. The dynamics are also all there, if you pick lightly it shows. In terms of distortion it sounds very organic, and very very usable and amp-like. One thing I want to comment on is the actual type of distortion, what does it sound like? A vintage amp? Or a modern amp? It sounds like a Suhr amp, which I feel tonally, tends to sit in between a vintage and modern sounding amp, leaning a bit more towards a modern sound. So this is where some people may or may not like it. Some players do not like the suhr sound, while others love it. So this is where it was hit or miss with me and I unfortunately do generally prefer a sort of high gain vintage sound and this pedal was not that. That's why I didn't keep it. But as stated I can understand and respect the tone it delivers and it does still sound amazing compared to regular distortion boxes. This is definitely one of a kind and I can see why it's become so popular. Try adding an overdrive pedal with it and maxing just the level you'll get awesome super metal sounds!! OVERALL OPINION Great pedal. One of the best sounding high gain pedals in the market today. Use it with a boost to get yourself into metal territory you're golden. I like how it was intently designed to work with clean amps but I almost wish it was made to work with more, but I'm selfish like that. Otherwise the Riot would've been a near perfect distortion pedal to use for every type of rig out there. The fact that one can get such a great sounding pedal without needing any tubes or special adapters etc makes it a plus!!

The Modern was invented for those looking for a 24 fret shred machine. It features a super sleek body with a great upper cutaway, special neck joint and floyd bridge. The guitar comes standard with an alder body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 24 stainless steel frets, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone and a five way switch. UTILIZATION The Modern is one of the latest inventions from John Suhr. He spent a ton of time designing this, and it shows. While it take some cues from Ibanez, I find that these guitars tend to be a bit more comfortable to play. The neck joint and lower cutaway make it a breeze to play lead lines up to the 24th fret. The frets on this model are also stainless steel, so they're super smooth to play. On top of that, all these guitars are PLEK'd to ensure super smooth playability. SOUNDS The alder body with the maple neck and rosewood make this guitar one of the ultimate shred machines out there. This wood combination has been used successfully for years throughout the guitar community, and I find it to be a very versatile sounding wood combo. The humbuckers in this are also wonderful. The bridge is aggressive enough to where it can do metal and super fast picking lines without muddying out, but it's also able to roll back and do some more tame jazz fusion lines. The neck pickup gives that awesome, powerful, modern PAF sound without sounding overly fat or too thin. OVERALL OPINION The Modern series is great for those who want a 24 fret shred machine. The thinner neck, lower cutaway and neck joint help make this guitar nearly play itself. The only thing I'd change about this guitar is that I'd like to see it with a basswood body and flamed maple top. That would be about the ultimate Modern, in my opinion.

The S6 is the floyd rose model of the S4. It features all the same great features that the S4 has, too. The guitar has a basswood body with a flamed maple top, a maple neck with dot inlays and 22 stainless steel frets, two humbuckers, one volume knob, one tone and a five way switch. UTILIZATION The S6 is my absolute favorite model out of the entire Pro Series S line. I'm a metal guy, so I tend to gravitate towards humbuckers and floyd rose bridges. The floyd on this is actually a Gotoh floyd, and while it's a licensed floyd, it is one of the best floyds on the market at the moment. In fact, John Suhr prefers this bridge over the OFR. The stainless steel frets are a treat to play on thanks to them being super slick. On top of that, these guitars all get the PLEK treatment, so you can slam the action as low as you want without worrying about fretting out. SOUNDS The humbuckers in these guitars absolutely rip. Given that this has a floyd and two humbuckers, it's geared more towards the hard rock/metal crowd, in my opinion. It can do the lower gain sounds without a problem, but I find they really shine once you start adding some gain. The bridge pickup screams and has some awesome harmonics going on. It works great for aggressive riffing, and it never gets too thin. The neck sounds awesome for that vowely kinda overdriven PAF sound. It's modern enough to do super fast legato licks, but it's also tame enough to do some great clean tones as well. The five way switch on this thing also lends itself to being super versatile. OVERALL OPINION Out of the entire Pro Series S guitars, this is my favorite. The Gotoh floyd is an awesome floyd, and the dual humbuckers seem to really fit me more so than the HSS configurations of the other guitars. The combination of basswood and flamed maple also lends itself to being a super versatile guitar that can really do anything you can think of. I highly recommend picking up one of these if you can find it.

Suhr has always been known to build great quality guitars, but their prices were usually a bit too steep for some people. Thanks to the new Pro Series line, they're able to streamline the build process and help make these guitars cheaper. The S2 is part of the S1 and S2 series guitars. Where as the S1 has a rosewood fretboard, the S2 has a maple fretboard. Aside from that, they're the same. The guitar has an alder body, maple neck, two point tremolo system, HSS configuration, one volume pot, one tone and a five way switch. UTILIZATION These guitars are scary good. Suhr is world renowned for their high quality guitars, and this is no exception. It's built in the same facility as the rest of them, and it's put together by the same luthiers. All the specs are basically the same, hence the ability for them to speed up the workflow and build these cheaper. The stainless steel frets are some of the best feeling frets out there. They bend so smoothly and almost never wear. The two point tremolo on this is also very nice. It's smooth and handles moderate whammy action without any problems at all. SOUNDS The guitar sounds a bit more like a slightly modern take on a strat. The humbucker in the bridge sounds great. It's powerful enough to play metal, but it's tame enough to back off and play country or jazz. The middle and neck singles are also a sight to behold as they sound extremely clear. The neck gives an awesome "vowely" kinda tone, and the in between tones are glorious. It does that quack sound in spades. Alder with a maple neck and fretboard just seems to be one of the best combinations out there for versatility, in my opinion. OVERALL OPINION These guitars are top notch guitars at a more affordable price. There are really no corners cut considering they're built by the same guys and in the same factory. You lose some options for customization, but that's to be expected considering the cheaper price. If you're looking for a fat strat alternative, I highly recommend checking out these guitars.