Suhr Guitars - An observation

tacdryver · July 4, 2013

For some time I checked them out, they were pushed on me early on by a high end local store.

Are they nice? Sure. What do they bring that say a nice Ibanez brings? Not much IMHO

I've done some A/B testing, actual, live in the same room, flip guitars, amps, ect and was able to get my guitar to sound just like a friends Suhr.

On TGP I asked why they didn't put fret markets on the last two frets. JS writes in that he doesn't like the look, that he still thinks '22 frets' and that he thought the fret markers would give off a cheesy cheapo import 80s metal vibe.

I said it looked unfinished with the missing fret markers - ban

Just an observation, but I seems 4k for guitar, while put together nicely is a little much when in the end, they just level and crown their frets and put some locking tuners on it.

Always going to be peeps with extra money dropping big dollars on toys, but I thought that the owner's comments pretty much sunk the boat for me. If he doesn't like 24 fret guitars and feels that he needs to make them like 22 fret guitars, but at the same time offer up neon drip, buckers, whammys, ect, it's like a deceptive message. He wants the customers but he doesn't like that guitar.

I think it's pretty stupid and personally the only way I would own a Suhr was if used and got it for a song.

2 cents.

mistersully · July 4, 2013

i had a pro series s1... dug it initially, but came to the conclusion that it was a very nice, perfectly built, completely flawless, boring at bat{censored} guitar

for me anyway

BydoEmpire · July 4, 2013

For what it's worth I absolutely love my Suhr. I loved it so much I sold most of my other guitars to finance it. It blew me away - tone, playability, feel. Every aspect is 10/10 and I haven't found any guitar at any price I like better. That said I played a bunch (maybe 20) other Suhrs that didn't speak to me. They were very fine guitars, just not for me. YMMV. I've played lots of guitars over the last 25 years from all kind of makers, in all price ranges. There are $100 guitars I thought were really cool, and $8000 guitars that didn't do it for me. All that matters is - does it work for you? I can understand some folks saying "no." Everyone likes and wants different things in a guitar, and may or may not like any given manufacturer. Nothing wrong with that. Suhrs guitars are universally high quality, though. I'd gladly take a few more if I had the money.

tacdryver wrote:

I've done some A/B testing, actual, live in the same room, flip guitars, amps, ect and was able to get my guitar to sound just like a friends Suhr.

I'm sure I could do the same thing, but I'd still rather play my Suhr. Again, YMMV.

Gitter · July 4, 2013

Very few primo brands withstand objective scruitiny, next to less expensive instruments. Musical instrument economics used to dictate that quality at least loosely tracked cost, that is no longer the case.

Branding- prestige, ego, pride of ownership- plays a titanic role in the upper end of the musical instrument world. While owners are usually quick with the confirmation-bias nonsense, ask them if they'd be willing to wager on any of their narrative in a valid, blind controlled sound sample test. Suddenly, their soaring theories fall quiet.

Not to say differences don't exist, but there's a ton of fetishism going on and it seems the fastest way to get people to believe your instruments have magical powers is to charge some exorbitant price for something that, functionally, could be exactly duplicated in Asia for 1/8th the cost.

1001gear · July 5, 2013