Suhr Guitars Chambered Classic T

2005 Classic Chambered T. Made in Lake Elsinore, CA. 22 Frets, sunburst Alder body, Alder top with 6 tuned chambers. The neck is Maple with Brazillian Rosewood, 60's C standard. with Abalone dots & Suhr logo. The body has binding on the front & back. Pickups are 2 Suhr Humbuckers, 3-way, master volume, master tone. The sunburst finish on the guitar is stunning! The neck has a satin finish with gloss headstock. Frets are 6100's, set up with 11's. Pickguard is mint green. Bridge is steel block vintage trem (1088). Case is made by G&G and is of the absolute highest quality. I have rated this category a 10 because I was able to choose from an endless array of options. Also John spoke with me on several occasions which helped tremendously.

I play mostly Blues and this guitar is perfect. It sounds very warm, rich & full in every position (exactly what I wanted) neck pickup position can sound jazzy to Johnny Copeland or SRV. The middle pickup has a very 'Albert Collins' sound, except that it has more honk and less ice pick (if that makes sense). The bridge pickup rocks. Both pickups sound great clean or with distortion. I'm currently using a Victoria Low Power Twin with Fulldrive 2, Deja Vibe & Fulltone Wah.

Suhr's fit, finish & setup is legendary. My guitar was absolutely perfect in every way. Not onlt was it in tune when I got it home, but I didn't need to touch the tuners for at least a week thereafter. There is no expense spared on components, woods etc. No time spared on attention to detail.

This is the second Suhr I've bought and it's just as solid as the 1st. I don't see any problems here.

John & his staff went above and beyond helping me with this guitar. I can honestly say that they do everything possible to make sure that the customer is happy. They are definitely the most professional, knowlegable & helpful people you could find to do business with. I bought both of my Suhr guitars through Heath at Boston Guitars - Awesome guy!

I have been playing for over 20 years and have a variety of other guitars - 1961 Strat, Suhr Classic, 1959 Reissue LP, Danelectro 12 string, Master Delta Blues, Master M45 Acoustic. I would surely buy another one if it were lost or stolen. I love the playablity & feel of these guitars the most. They enable you to play better and they sound great.

2000 model, chambered w/ mini f-hole, 2-tone honeyburst w/ dog ear w/b/w pickguard, swamp ash body w/ flame maple top and 1- piece "museum quality" Birdseye maple neck w/ even C medium shape and light satin finish, 22 heavy frets, chrome Neck T pickup w/ black Broadcaster Bridge pickup, 3 saddle vintage T bridge, Gotoh Kluson tuners, chrome hardware.

I feel lucky to have found this guitar - a truly unique combination of options and features that suit my playing styles and aesthetic and sonic preferences. A stunner!

For amplification, I mainly use a modified (by Barber Electronics)Fender Bandmaster Reverb head w/ a custom-built 4x10 cabinet containing Weber VST "60's brown sound" speakers. Effects pedals include Boss Compression Sustainer and Barber Tone Pump, Burn Unit and Edge Hog for varying degrees of thickness, sharpness, boost, distortion, etc.; Line 6 POD w/ floorboard for all else. Playing styles include jazz, blues, Spanish, surf, psychedelia, funk, soul, Tex-Mex, rock, etc.

By far, this is the most naturally and beautifully resonant electric I have ever played - so much so that I was afraid to plug in my Suhr Strat - especially at the same amp tone and volume settings as the Tele. What I later discovered is that they are perfectly complimentary and I like the Strat even more than before. I was also taken by how warm and full sounding this guitar is; if you like the classic piercing Buchananesque high-end of a solid body Tele, this guitar is not for you. If Danny Gatton and Stevie Ray, together, commissioned a guitar build, I imagine it would sound and play like much like this one. Clearness, articulation, sustain, full and balanced chord voicings and overtones, strong in the mids and lows, not thin or too trebly-sounding. I think that, because so much wood has been extracted from the body of this guitar - it has 6 chambers -the maple top and neck are an absolute necessity, adding back the necessary treble that was scooped out of the swamp ash. And the neck pickup, which I find to be too thin-sounding in conventional Tellies, is as versatile a pickup as I have ever encountered - for rhythm and lead anywhere (everywhere)on the neck. I have played this guitar every day for the entire month I've owned it and I am still in blissful discovery!

This guitar is flawless in appearance - wood and wood finish, frets, body contours, neck and neck pocket, hardware, f-hole cut - everything....except, from a certain angle, the bridge pickup hole below the bridge plate is barely visible on the fat E side of the guitar. For this reason alone, I give it a "9." Since all of the Suhr Classic T's and Fender Telecasters I've looked at - vintage and new, have this "flaw" - sometimes on both sides or either side of the bridge plate, I'm not too concerned about it. No sense, I guess, in changing the dimensions of that bridge plate! By way of comparison: I own a tri-color burst PRS Custom 22 w/ a flame maple "10 Top" - it's beautiful, and every bit a "10." The Suhr is a "50."

I've only had it a month, so only time will tell. But, I do feel comfortable enough about it's quality of construction and parts, and durability to let my 2.5 year old son strum it and, of course, plug/unplug and play with the knobs. Considering it's practically hollow, it's especially sturdy.

Responsive, friendly, and knowledgeable. Returned e-mail on a Sunday!

My only complaint with this guitar is that, contrary to my Suhr Strat w/ whammy, it seems to go out of tune too quickly and too often. Need to have my tech check for intonation/setup problems. Still plays great. If lost or stolen, would begin quest for immediate and near-exact replacement. I think it's a great value - especially considering that, with tax, this axe retails for about $4,000. I have listened to enough guitars to know when I heard it, it was the one. So, in that sense, yes, I compared it to everything else I've ever heard.

I don't really have much different to say from the others who have already reviewed John Suhr's guitars here. I mostly want to confirm the other glowing reviews, as well as let people know of some of the other options that Suhr offers. (As well as do a little bragging!)
My guitar is a Telecaster shaped model, basswood body with hollowed out tone chambers, a quilted maple top and cherry sunburst finish. No pickguard. Pickups are H/S/H configuration, with two of Suhr's JST humbuckers and a V60 single coil in the middle. One tone and one volume control that are knurled chrome tele-style knobs. 5 way pickup selector switch that produces the following pickup combinations: neck humbucker; neck humbucker split in combination with single coil; inside two coils of the humbuckers; bridge humbucker split with single coil; bridge humbucker alone. Hardtail bridge. Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard with an "Even C Medium" profile and medium frets. I use string gauges .011 - .049. Sperzel standard (non-locking) tuners, with staggered heights to eliminate the need for string trees. It comes with a very nice G & G tolex-covere case.
I ordered this guitar on October 20, 1998, and it was shipped February 19, 1999. This was despite my making several radical changes in the order, that I informed them of literally as they were loading the guitar into the CNC machine! (They were extremely nice about this). Otherwise, I might have received the guitar a month or two earlier.
I should remind readers that these guitars can be ordered with any number of options. Almost every aspect of the design (body woods, pickups, neck shape, fret size, etc.) can be ordered to your liking.

Even unplugged, this guitar has a very warm, rich, full tone. I play jazz, at times using a traditional, clean, hollowbody-type tone, but at times I also like using some distortion and other modern tones a la Scofield, Stern, Wayne Krantz, etc. (not that I can play anywhere remotely as well as those guys!).
The JST humbuckers are actually built by DiMarzio, using a design similar to their "Airbucker" series. They have a warm, round tone, just slightly hotter than vintage, and great definition and clarity. The biggest surprise was the tone of the neck pickup, which gives me a very genuine, full, smooth ES-175 type jazz tone. I'm sure the tone chambers help here. I had hoped to buy an archtop at some time in the future, but now I may not be able to justify that (Although I'm sure I could find a way!).
The neck pickup produces a nice, bluesy distorted tone and is very touch responsive. Heavy metal players might want a hotter pickup. The "in-between" positions produce very useful and pleasant out of phase tones that work best on clean settings. They're not quite as juicy as a Strat, however, although I suspect the body wood has a lot to do with this. The array of sounds you can get out of this guitar is almost overwhelming and I'm sure I have just scratched the surface so far.
Again, this just describes the options on my guitar. Any other pickup and switching combination can be ordered.
One aspect of a guitar I had never really paid attention to is the tone controls. It was not until I started using this instrument and realized that every tone setting was useful, and that the volume control did just that, ie. control the volume without unduly affecting the tone, did I realize how often these controls are deficient in other guitars.

Absolutely flawless, is all I can say. Well, actually, I will say some more. The quilting on the top is breathtaking, with an almost three-dimensional depth to it's appearance. The finish is mirror-smooth without a single blemish visible anywhere. I was originally going to order a '54 sunburst finish, but John recommended the cherry burst, as it would allow all the figuring of the top to remain visible. I'm glad I listened to him! "Cherry burst" is a bit of a misnomer as it does not have a lot of red in it. It looks something like an aged Les Paul sunburst, kind of amber in tone.
The fretwork is perfect, the neck-body joint couldn't be tighter. But where this guitar really shines is its feel. I've always preferred the sound of a thick neck, but have been limited by my rather small hands. However, knowing of Suhr's reputation for superior playability I took the chance of ordering a somewhat meatier neck than I am used to. Well, the risk paid off. From the moment I picked it up, the guitar felt like it was built just for my hands, it plays that effortlessly. It's extremely light and resonant; it almost reponds like a fine acoustic. However, there is no neck heaviness. The cutaway is somewhat deeper than a traditional tele, and the back has been carved away at the back and the heel bevelled to allow greater access to the upper frets (It's kind of a less extreme version of the Steven's extended cutaway). Even after being shipped across the continent, the setup cannot be improved upon.

Having had it only a month, I can't say. Based on the workmanship apparent, however, I don't anticipate any problems.

I communicated with John Suhr several times, by phone and E-mail. He was at all times prompt,accessible and friendly, willing to talk for as long as it took (in fact, I usually had to be the one to end the conversation!). In fact, his personality was one of the reasons I picked his company. He is a frequent contributor to the newsgroup rec.music.makers.guitar and is always providing helpful, objective information, even to the point of praising competitor's guitars.
The guitar has a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects to the original owner, and a money back guarantee if you don't like it when it is delivered. How can you go wrong?

As you may suspect, I like this guitar very much. I was a little apprehensive about buying a guitar sight-unseen, but then I thought of the transaction as not so much buying an instrument as buying the services of a craftsman. As such, John Suhr's credentials are impeccable. I can think of no improvements that could be made in this guitar; the only question would be of what options best suit your playing style. I don't know if John Suhr makes the best solidbody around today. I can only say that I haven't played anything better.