Custom Audio Electronics OD-100

2 channels,overdrive channel has boost switch. Sieries effects loop,5881 tubes

clean has sh mod, like blackface fender, boost and bright switches to give variations,awesome. Distortion channel kills,hit boost and thick focused tone.Depth and presence knobs on back to tailor sound even more.As close to the sound in my head as there is,awesome,pushes air.

sent an email about effects loop and John Suhr himself called me back and explained all I need to know.excellent

Had them all,Marshall to Budda to Mesa to Soldano to Diezel. This is my fave and a keeper,brutal and classic when it wants to be, no complaints.

This is a follow up to my previous review....

As stated in my previous email.....Fantastic!

Jihn Suhr is the man....He should be in the "Whitehouse",,,He is a man of intergrity!

As mentioned in my previous review, I had smoke coming out of the back due to the vinyl of the back cover (inside back cover) melting. Sent John an email on the Sunday night Monday got a response a kit to do a TEMP fix, new tubes and a a replacement amp coming as John put it....What do I have to do make you happy? I told John; I really appreciated the fix but an amp of this price I would have preffered a replacement....Done he said! I am blown away by the "Imperial Service" I have received...John is a first class businessman and has my business going forward as I plan to own a Suhr guitar.

I am just a hacker guitar player in Ottawa and by no means pro, not even close but John treats you like a somebody! I have bought much guitar gear over the years and NEVER seen service as good as the service provided by Suhr. Chris (the tech) was very helpful, kind, patient and curtious in helping me get the TEMP fix in the amp to get me playing again.
If you want good stuff and super after-sale service give Suhr your consideration....You will not regret...And that all I have to say about that. Thanks John, Chris!

First class all the way....This amp is a beast with sound that makes you just smile.

This review is for the OD 100 SE+. It has all the fetures you would need although it could have the following just to be a bit more versitile: The on\off - standby switch on the front panel, an effects loop on\off switch on the footpedal. Other than that this is amp is ALL sound. Power, tone and sound are what you part with your cash for and this amp does not disapoint!

SOUND is what this amp is about! The clean is great, you can dial in just about anything you want to hear. I use a Les Paul Styandard and it make this guitar sing. ALL the distortion you ever want. Touch a note and the amp does it's thing without having to be coaxed into feedback. I am into the gain usually at 10 but on this amp 7 or 8 will give you creamy great distorion. Then there is the boost switch on the foot pedal for over the top sustain and dynamics. It will sustain for days and days....In a league of it's own for sure! Inspiring and make you smile. I am running this amp with 2 tubes pulled to get 50 watts for pratice\jam purposes and it is one LOUD freakin amp.

The first Jam I did with this amp I ran it for 5 hours straight without stopping and the back cover started to smoke from being too close to the tubes. Not sure why there is not a perforated metal grill back there but I am looking into this with my dealer. It maight have been the 5 hours of playing but I still fing the power tubes close to the back cover. The smell of burning vynil left me wondering. I hate amp fires! I will await Custom Audio's recommendations on this matter.

Don't know still waiting to see what they will say andout the back cover situation mentioned above. At this price for an amp and what I know of their reputation this should not be a problem. I bought this amp from Lauzon Music and the boys there were great. They took to time to demonstrate the amp's capabilities. Dave, Matt....First class!

Killer amp! If you have the $$$ to spend on an amp that will do ALL the sounds you want this is a great amp. Expensive...Yess.....Worth it.....Absolutely! I have had some great amps: Orange, Mesa, Traynor but this amp is at a whole other level of sound detail. If it was to disapear I would get the same model in a heartbeat. This amp is the "crack" of amplifiers and I think once you go there there is NO going back. I love this amp!

2005 OD-100 Standard head purchased "NOS": 2-channels, switching, tube-buffered FX loop that is also a low impedance pre-amp for driving pedals & low level rack gear. This amp is used live & in the studio w/ more than enough power (4-5881's). It can be used for any electric style of playing. If you want to go nuts & use the FX loop as another gain stage, you can do that as well.

After chasing sound with Bogner, Fuchs, Egnater, Marshall, Vox, et al: this amp nailed all the tones I had been searching for. Channel 1 (clean to bluesy) can give twang/shimmer/warm tones & beyond. Channel 2 picks up where 1 leaves off and takes it to hi-gain territory with touch sensitivity & dynamics. Whether using single coils or Hummers: it compliments all my guitars. Using Zion, PRS, Ed Reynolds, Koll and other axes with very low noise levels. The loop is quiet and ultra-efficient too. The chase for tone (for me) is over.

Made superbly by people that care - check their website & reputation.
I'd never use this head as a coaster or ashtray anyway.

E-mails answered same/next day by John(owner) and phone calls answered by Ed (customer servive & marketing). I was treated better than any company I have ever dealt with in over 30 years of playing. Chasis will go back for upgrade(s) ASAP. Lifetime warranty to original owner when purchased new. It really doesn't get better than that: these guys care about their products & clients.

After playing for over 30 years, this amp is a mix of all the best sounds, features and build quality. I would replace it if anything happened to it. I finally have to accept the fact that tube amps & their transformers are just going to weigh a bit more. And when I inquired about having a fan put in, John said that that was possible as well. It's well worth it when the sound is this good. I bet the combo models are killer too.

2 channels..boost for each channel..only footswitchable on channel 2 which is a shame..but i leave it on boost mode an channel 1 and just roll back the volume to clean up..works for me
tube buffered effects loop..which can also be used as a master volume..mine is the sh/se version made in 2005..

are you kidding???? this is the mutts nuts..absolute tone to die for..ive had everything from marshall jcm800,soldano decatone,3 engls,boogie recto,laney gh100...etc..
loads of gain on this..but very smooth and tight..sustains for days..
using it with a prs singlecut satin with a touch of reverb and delay from a rocktron intellifex ltd..also have matching cab with celestion g12h 30w speakers...
the great thing is every control actually works..but seems best voiced roughly with the eq controls around 12 oclock..
never been so impressed with an amp

only had it a week so its hard to say..but its well made and built like a tank,so im not expecting any problems..

john does answer emails..but there is a great forum on the site too..with loads of info from other users of his amps and guitars etc...so you should be able to find out what you need

playing for over 10yrs...bought and sold a lot of amps and i mean a lot..
this one will be with me for a very long time...very very impressive..it costs a huge amount of money..but like anything you get what you pay for...im a huge fan of doug aldrich and reb beach from whitesnake..also a huge john sykes fan..which is why i leaned toward this amp.reb uses the same model..and doug has had several mods to his marshalls by john suhr...

Mine is the OD 100 std model. Read reviews below. Quite basic, not many features. A foot switchable boost on chanel 1 would be nice. Volume control on the boost on ch 2 would also be usefull.
This is not the type of amp you buy for the features, more a bare bones tone generater. Very loud, I actually pulled out two output tubes to bring it down to 50w.

Sound is about as good as it gets. Overall has superb tone, tight sounding and razor sharp response. I run most dials at around 12 O'clock, huge bass no flab. Great sensitivity to guitar volume knob and playing. Will not hide mistakes.
Ch 1 sounds like a big fat 60's Fender, very open, glassy, tonefull, round sound. Gain can be dialed in and there is also a boost button on the faceplate. Gets some realy nice over drive using higher gain. No metal sounds here, more country or rock.
Chanel 2 has insane amounts of gain, can easily do metal, I find the sweet spot is around 2-5 on the gain. Has huge amount of bottom end nice mids and highs that don't sound harsh. This chanel does anything from country, blues, rock to modern high gain. Palm mutes on high gain settings remain tight. Sounds like something between a Soldano Slo 100 and a MkIV Messa Boogie. Has the Soldano bite and tighness with the Boogie overdrive.

I've been playing 30 years. I currently also own a Bogner 100b Ecstacy, Soldano X99 pre amp and Soldano SM100 power amp. The OD 100 is a tone machine, it's right up there with the best. Comes down to what sound you're after. I recently sold a Soldano Slo 100 which I had owned for 10 years and I prefer the CAE. It is a smoother sound basicaly yet somewhat similar overdrive. Ch 1 on the CAE is fantastic in comparison, it's like having two different amps in one box.

This is a 2006 OD-100 SE model with the added, but discontinued Scott Henderson mod as well. The "SE" model is supposed to be more for metal guys.

Layout is very straight forward with separate EQ for its two channels. Each channel also has a boost and bright button with the included channel switcher only boosting the lead channel. Not necessary on the clean channel, but more options are usually better.

Be ready to go to the gym first before toting this thing around. The head alone comes in around 60lbs.

All in all... this was designed to be a very simple and easy to use amp.

This is why you buy this amp! I had been searching for potential new amps, with this one at the top of my list. I had been playing through a Soldano HR100+ with mods for 10+ years. Loved the amp but felt the tone a little dated. There are so many great high end amps out on the market right now. I had one of my guitars being repaired and when I went to pick it up a guy in the shop had me try out a standard OD-100. I was impressed right away with it's very sharp and responsive attack with every strike of the pick. I felt the tone characteristics and distortion quality was awesome. But I wanted more. So when my Soldano oddly crapped out, it was a great excuse to finally break down and buy this amp.

I play mostly Ibanez RG guitars using Air Nortons, and Super Distortions. For FX I am currently using an old Ibanez SDR 1000 for delay, and a Rocktron Pro Q midi programmable parametric EQ. All this goes through either a Genz-Benz 2x12 Lynch cab loaded with celections, or a Jackson 4x12.

First off let me just say this amp is LOUD!!! In fact I found myself removing 2 of the 4 power tubes to drop it to 50 watts when playing with the 2x12. And even with just 50-watts, at 4-5 on volume the ground is shaking. But here's the best part... what you are paying for is clarity.

Clean/plexi-ish channel-1) I have never played through an amp with such a shimmering/sparkly clean channel. Without the "boost" button depressed you get rich and full bodied chords and notes. I'll even switch the guitar to a single coil and notes shimmer. Press the "boost" and add a bit more gain and it's a nice slightly distorted tone that breaks up more the harder you hit the strings. I haven't played much with the Scott Henderson mod, but it definately alters the frequencies almost scooping out the mids. I pretty much set it and forget it. Good to have options though.

Distortion and more distortion Channel-2) WOW! I set the gain around 6-7 and then use the guitar volume to roll off the distortion if need be. Much more on the gain is just not necessary. And what you are paying for is the fact the every single note rings out and finds its place. I have played many other high gain amps that just get so muddy especially when you turn them up... no so here. Like most amps, you find a "sweet spot" with the volume that is the best combination of tone and volume. Personally beyond 5 I feel the tone doesn't get better, but definately louder still retaining its clarity. 4-5 was best for me. And on the back of the amp you also have a "feedback" contol for those that want to hold that chord out into feedback hell. And when you hit the "Boost" footswitch it adds just the right amount of gain to "push you over the cliff". Every note sings especially when doing leads.

Amp is fairly new so I better not have issues.

Haven't dealt with them, but I hear they are friendly.

I have been playing now for 20+ years and a product of the 80's metal scene. But I also keep up with the current metal as well. Lynch is one of my biggest influences which is partly why I bought the Soldano. This amp to me is an extension of the Soldano with a tighter and meaner bottom end. And the notes are more defined. But... if you are not an accurate player, this might not be the amp for you. Every mistake will be accentuated because it is a very "touch sensitive" amp. But this will also reward the good player because depending on how you phrase notes and pick them, you can make the tone dance.

If I had to do it all over again I would absolutely consider this amp again. The only one I played recently that perked my ears was the Hughes and Kettner MK II Lifeson model just because it has more features and a little more "hair" in the distortion. But you will be hard pressed to find an amp with this much distortion, but also allows every note to ring out with character. And the clean channel can MAYBE only be beat by one of these serious botique amps like a Matchless or Divided by 13. But then you never get the distortion with those amps.

My amp is a OD100 Classic with EL34's. The amp has two channels but
channel one and two have boost feature which can be activated either by the push buttons on the amp or the by the footswitch.
The footswitch activates the boost for channel two only.The amp has a effects loop but it seems to work the best with a line mixer.This amp really nails the Marshall sound but takes it a step further by offering a great clean channel.I play mostly small clubs and this amp really fills up the room and blends nice in the mix.I am very fond of EL34/Marshall type amps for their attack and note response and this is where the OD100 Classic really shines!

I use Strats and Pauls and the OD100 Classic sounds great with both!
I have a pedal board filled with all the gizmo's and this amp takes
to pedals really well.This amp is very touch sensitive and has a very
open sound! If you run the gain flat out it captures that AC/DC
tone but I usually run it a little past 12:00 for a great Blues/Rock
Tone.If I need to get a early Halen sound, I just run the gain around seven and let my tube screamer or Maxon SD9 take it over the top!
If you are looking for that classic plexi tone but you need a great
clean channel also, this amp is the way to go!

I owned the OD100 Standard before I got the OD100 Classic.
The OD100 Standard would shut down once in a while so John asked me
to send it back.It was nothing major, only a defective resistor but
John had the guy's fix it quickly and they sent my amp back with
all the 2006 upgrades! Wow! He fixed it and went a step further!!
The OD100 Standard is a amazing amp and maybe I will own both amps
down the line but for my style which is more in the Hendrix/Beck
vein, the Classic was more for me.John Suhr really stands behind his
product and it's no wonder why the best players in the world use his
amps and guitars!

I dealt with company over the phone and they always took the time
to answer my questions.The OD100 Standard only needed a simple repair
(and it wasn't due to Suhr's craftsmanship) It was a defective resistor! My OD100 Classic is running perfect and his amps are built like tanks with the very best in parts, so I really don't see the need for back up.
John Suhr's customer service is outstanding and He really stands behind his product.

I've been playing professionally for about 15 years and I've worked
in the music retail side of things also.
If the OD100 Classic was lost or stolen I would be heart broken!
I've owned Marshalls, Fenders, Peaveys, etc, etc.
For what I do, I couldn't find a better amp!

My OD100 is the"CLASSIC"model which Im told is voiced to Mike Landau's vintage 68 plexi and has less gain than the other OD-100'S although it has the exact same controlls and features as the others.Runs on EL-34'S and an output transformer that is similar to an older marshall.To me the amp has just enough of what I want from a modern amp in terms of knobs and channels and the boost function.

I compared the OD100"classic" to the other OD100's and I prefer the "classic". I would say anyone looking for the modern channel 2 crunch sound of the bogner 101b or ch2 crunch of the cae preamp or the diezle ch 2 crunch would dig this amp as its capable of a more open sounding,modern, marshallesque type crunch in the channel 2.I wasnt looking for an insane higain lead channel..just somthing that would do a marshall 800 style crunch but way way better smoother or more refined.The boost on this amp is way less dramatic unlike the other OD-100 models.It is just enough for me.Some might want more.There is no insane lead channel like on the diezle einstien but on that amp,I could not get the lead channel2 to be used as a great rythm crunch channel.I needed clean on 1 and mean on 2.The OD-100 classic is perfect for this.The foot boost works perfectly and adds just the right amount of everything for a solo or where you want to step out in front of the rest your band.The clean is like a fender to me and pushed mode is nice if you want to get a bit of a more mild break up in the preamp.

who knows?

There is a human that picks up the phone!

This amp is not a cathode biased class A tube rectified spoonge amp.It is a modern punchy loud rock machine without the recto vibe and more marshally but with its own character and your guitars and settings and cab and playing will make every diffrence as its not very forgiving so try it all before you commit.You get what you pay for on this but I knew 100% what I wanted before plugging in.Make sure you know exactly what you are looking for.Vox is not here.Nor is recto.Fine for me.

All tube. Four 5881/6L6 and six 7025/ecc83. Series, tube recovery, effects loop. Two channels, both with boost and bright. Second chn. boost is footswitchable. I also have a depthctrl-mod done to my amp. I'd like the effectsloop to be switchable.

Cleanchn goes from clean to SRV depending on your choice of tube (first stage), but most tubes will overdrive if you crank the gain. It responds extremely well to pedals. I love my tubescreamer through it! The amp has tons of highs and lows. When I don't care to bring my rack, I use only this chn. with some pedals and it's very versatile!
Leadchn really rocks. I like the Marshall-like crunchsounds I find here. Coupled with the Black cat od1 it gets the fattest leadsound I ever heard! The boostfunction in this chn. sounds real good but requires some tweeking. There's an internal trimpot for the boost inside the amp. You can get an insane amount of gain from this amp. More than you'll ever need!
This amp is also very loud. I have yet to hear a louder one...It still sounds good at usable volumes. I use my '65 Deluxe reverb where the od100 is overkill. This suits me just fine. By the way, the amp is not at all noisy even in extreme gain-settings.
I use humbuckers and single coils both with equally good results. Good amp for blues-rock and heavier jazz-styles.

Sure it's a dependable amp, and it does not eat tubes. I've had a problem with my amp though. Fluctating voltage on the preamptube heaters. When this appeared, the amp sounded like crap! I had to do some overseas shipping to fix this. There are other amps out there with the same problem, so watch out!

They help you out, but they are slow. I had another insightful person help me out with my amp.

I've been playing for 18 years. I used to play Mesa/Boogie, but those amps allways pissed me off! I also owned the Egnater ie4 which I didn't care about either. It wasn't all that bad though, but no rack gear will give you the same punch as a 100w head.
If I'm buying another amp, it's probably a singlechn head with switchable effects-loop and some kind of boost function. That's more than versatile enough for my use.