Suhr Guitars Classic Tele

Just what I wanted very simple tele setup 2 single coils with a 3 way switch tone and volume for my purposes a 10. excellent alder contoured tele body, very comfortable. Even slim c taper neck maple with rosewood fretboard probably the nicest neck I've played. Vintage white with mint green pickguard, not my first choice but it's growing on me. Vintage Tele Bridge 3 barrel style but more reliable. Vintage Strat Tele tuners. Very cool vintage vibe taking the best from the 50's and the 60's. Came with a G & G Hardshell case.

I play mostly classic rock but will occassionally play newer harder rock and the occassional blues gig. Playing through a 1964 Blackface Twin with an assortment of Keeley, Fuller pedals, This guitar can do it all and sounds great. I get great clean tones from both pickups and can go from twangy rockabilly to a fairly warm jazzy tone. With the twin I have to rely on pedals for overdrive and crunch I'm using 2 Keeley modded tubescreamers and a Fulltone Distortion Pro. The Suhr responds nicely to all of them with a little single coil hum.

Bought it used, but the setup was close to flawless. Neck, Pickups and finish are excellent with 2 minor exceptions. A small ding on the belly cut on the top of the back which I knew about going in, and an almost not noticeable chip at the neck joint that I suspect was when the neck was bolted on but I could be wrong. I'm gonna give the good people at Suhr the benefit of the doubt because everything else about this guitar is top notch.

This is a custom tele very simple setup and built with outstanding care and attention to detail. I can't imagine what could go wrong. The harware and finish are high quality. I got the guitar over 2 months ago and have done several gigs without a backup.

I did call the company, to inquire about a Custom Audio Amp, I figured I loved the guitar so much that I'd probably love one of their amps, Customer service was very fast to get back to me and answer all of my questions. They even talked me out of the 100 watt model and advised me that they are designing a 50 watt version. When they build it I will by. The 100 watt head kicks ass!

I've been playing over 30 years and have owned a lot of Strats, Teles, Les Pauls and SGs But I've always been partial to the Fender feel. The problem is the last 2 fenders (both Custom Shop) were in my opinion crap. I traded 2 custom shop strats for a 2003 PRS Custom 22 10 top. It's a beautiful guitar but I missed the Fender feel so I took a chance on Suhr hell if it's good enough for Knopfler it's good enough for me. The Suhr has become my #1. As soon as I'm able I'm gonna get another Suhr, maybe a standard or Strat copy

This is a 2005 straw blonde ash body contour T with 6100 frets on the Big V one piece maple neck with the 1088 bridge. After I ordered this guitar I realized it had the BF tuning system. There I go jumping the gun again. But to my surprise it works ok.

The Suhr has no DEAD SPOTS! Played with a cord only thru a Clark 5E3 Tweed with Mullard 6V6's and a Celestion Blue this guitar offers a great array of tonal coloration. The Suhr Tele pickups do a fine job but with the 1088 bridge that Tele twang is lacking. I still rate it a 10 overall.

First class all the way. The BIG V neck with 10-14 radius is very comfortable to play for extended periods.

Of course

Only had a brief talk with a Suhr employee who was more than helpful with all questions.

After 40 years of playing I have been exposed to and own some nice guitars. This Suhr T is one that surprised me. I have dumped more Tele's and Tele copies than I care to admit for a number of reasons. The main reason was poor judgement on my part for buying them to begin with. So for the sake of gambling again I finally lucked out and got one that is musical.

Thanks to all the folks at JST who give a damn about what they are suppose to be doing. It works.

This Suhr Classic T was built expressly for me (completed 10/03), and all the features were created from my requests (while considering the suggestions of John et. al. at Suhr Guitars). Each Suhr guitar is built by one craftsman, and I think this one was built by Steve, though I'm not certain. Because my wishes were so carefully attended to in every detail, there couldn't be an instrument more perfect w/re: features for me than this one. Here are the specs: model: Classic T; body wood; lightweight alder; neck wood: Pau Ferro back & fingerboard; neck back shape & fb radius: Even C "Huge" .880-.960, 9" - 12" fb radius; Frets: 22 Medium (6130, I think); Bridge: 3 saddle Vintage T brass compensated; Nut Width: 1.65; Hardware: chrome; Gears: Sperzel locking; pickguard: Parchment 3ply; electronics: 5 way switch allowing bridge, bridge/HB inner coil, bridge/neck HB, bridge/neck outer coil, neck; neck pickup: JST DSV Humbucker; bridge pickup: Broadcaster Bridge; Finish: Ice Blue Metallic. This is a beautiful guitar to look at & near magic to play. The body, like all Suhr T's, is contoured for maximum comfort. The solid Pau Ferro neck has a beautiful rich chocolate-colored tone & fabulous grain. The "huge" Even C neck is beefy but not really so huge to me. The feel of this neck is the most important feature to me, and John Suhr makes the most comfortable big necks anywhere! The Gatton-style bridge sounds wonderful, in my opinion, and intonates better than more modern tele bridges. The JST DSV Humbucker in the neck has a tremendous sound. It's JST's take on the vintage HB, and it's thick yet articulate sound is great--just as great as the Lindy Fralin Vintage HB, a pickup I thought couldn't be equalled. The Broadcaster Bridge is the ripping, rocking Tele sound at its best. The Ice Blue Metallic finish, which John told me was a bitch to spray, is as fine as you'll ever see--absolutely flawless & beautiful. The only tiny and easily correctable problem with this guitar as it came to me had to do with the Elixir strings used originally--I just don't like them. But that, of course, only took moments to correct.

The sound of this guitar is magnificent. With the switching options and the woods used, it's extremely versatile, giving the greatest traditional Fender Tele sounds as well as the richness of a neck humbucker & the darker-than-maple but brighter-than-solid-rosewood neck wood more reminiscent of Gibson or PRS-style instruments. I play through a Naylor Super Club 38 "freak" head that was modified by both Joe Naylor & Doug Roccaforte, a Two Rock 112 Cabinet and a Sultone Mahogany/Lacewood 112. I also use a Fuchs-modified ODS Bassman head and a Doug Hoffman 30-watt head through a KW Cabs ST-1 212. This guitar sounds great through all of them. The sound of this guitar is as spectacular as the looks and feel. The willingness of the John Suhr & his staff to use exactly the elements I wanted allowed for exactly the range of sounds I wanted. Even so, I had no right to expect how fantastic a sound I'd get from this guitar.

The guitar arrived from Suhr in Lake Elsinore, California to the East Coast set up perfectly with great action, pickups adjusted perfectly, etc. The finish was beautiful beyond compare (I've noticed that the finish on other Suhrs I've had & those of friends & associates that the Suhr finishes are ALWAYS vastly superior.). Suhr does beautiful book-matched maple tops, by the way, but I'm not fond of figured maple tops so this one doesn't have that feature. The routing, the fret finishing, cut of the nut, hardware, etc. are all meticulously done & perfect in every detail. I can't imagine the care it takes to pull this off.

The guitar is as solidly built as you'll find. Judging from other Suhrs I've had & from the Suhrs of friends, including international touring musicians, there's no question that this instrument will more than stand up to the rigors of live playing and touring. This instrument can be depended upon to deliver ALL the time, and I have no qualms about using it live without a backup.

There are a lot of terrific people building guitars, and I've dealt with a number of great guitar builders who are also terrific human beings (Roger Sadowsky, Tom Anderson, Lorenzo German at Klein, etc.)great in customer support, but John Suhr is a cut above in this category. There is no more responsive, "real" a person in this business, I think, than John Suhr. I think his manner, approach & philosophy is clearly present in his staff as well. One really gets the feeling that John never minds spending as much time as it takes on the phone to get the instrument right. His willingness to offer information about new projects as well as discussing all the details of your project, while never forcing it on you, is something I like very much. I felt that John was taking the building of my instrument as seriously as any he'd worked on. Responsiveness in follow-up has been great, and I believe that John, Steve, et. al. really, sincerely wanted me to be as satisfied as possible with my guitar. If there were a 10+ rating in this category, that's what it would be.

I've played for 25 years now. I've owned an embarrassingly large number of expensive (as well as relatively inexpensive) guitars, many of which were fine instruments. I currently own only 2 other Suhrs and a Warmoth parts Strat. If it were stolen, I'd have to order another right away. I can't imagine being without this one. It has taken me a long time to figure out what I REALLY like, in all details, in an electric guitar. John Suhr was able to build EXACTLY the instrument I asked for when I finally did figure out what I wanted. Considering all the money I've spent on guitars that were never quite right for me, the cost of this guitar is almost irrelevant. It really is a fantastic value even though the initial sound of the price tag seems high.

Specs: Tele style body (ash), rosewood board (madagascar), big frets, big V neck (I believe its based on Joe Bac's 56 strat) See thru white (Mary Kay), white pickgaurd, tele bridge pickup and 2 strat pickups (its a 3 pickup tele) Tele bridge.

Electronics: It has a Suhr Tele bridge pickup and 2 Suhr Strat singles, a 5 way and a push pull to bring in the neck & bridge (and in the 4 pos all three pickups so you get all combinations, only niggle is that in the bridge mode the selector switch is too close to the volume (its vol & tone) knob and its a bit hard to "flick around"
Suhr Tele Bridge: Big & punchy (not at all wimpy) twangy with the tone all the way up but beefy when you roll the tone back, you can go from Albert Lee twang to crunch chords pretty easily, lots of string definition and not at all harsh very sweet and musical.
Suhr Single coils (neck & middle): Very 3-D, harmonically rich, able to get amazing clean or dirty tones, sweet as Eric Johnson and bluesy as SRV, even better than the fralins I have, simply put these are the best strat pickups I have heard, they have it, think of the best strat tones you have ever heard and these are better.
Tone: The guitar sustains like a Les Paul, its rings like a Mother F., The very light resonant ash body combined with a big neck just give this guitar amazing tone, by manipulating your volume & tone controls you can pretty much get every tone imaginable from a strat or tele and even some (like big crunchy distorted rythyms & leads) that you didnt think you could get.The tone is very warm and alive but not harsh and 3 dimensional. Ive had just about every high end guitar made (Tyler,Anderson Grosh ect...) this is as good as it gets.

Playability: The guitar is perfectly set up, low action but no buzz ! all the notes play clean, no dead spots, for some the neck would be too big but once you get used to it its pretty easy to get around (note John offers justabout any size neck you want) and I also believe the big neck contributes greatly to the tone. It has a nice satin finish which feels smooth & fast,frets are perfect, can't ask for a better playing guitar, if you play bad on this you suck.

Customer Service: John was great, he spent alot of time with me on the phone and did everything as I ordered (how many times have you ordered something and gotten it and realized a builder forgot to do something you asked !)
Price/Value: The Suhrs are priced similiar to Grosh or Anderson and lower than a Tyler, they are worth every penny. If you want a truly professional, amazing sounding playing guitar that will inspire you, save your pennies and buy a Suhr.

I give it a 10 because its that good !