John Suhr
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Suhr Guitars have outstanding playability and feel. John’s V60 single coil pickups are a favorite among many tone coinsures. John Suhr has had a long and impressive career as both a guitar builder and amp designer. He has built guitars for Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Lou Reed, Steve Stevens, Reb Beach, Little Steven, Micheal Landau and Scott Henderson.
Here is a little history and philosophy from the Suhr Guitars website:
John started his building career some 20 years ago in New Jersey. Searching for the perfect tone during his bar band days, he began building his own instruments. In the early 80's John started working for Rudy Pensa at Rudy's Music Stop in NYC. It was during this time that the "Pensa-Suhr" guitars were born. John built guitars under the "Pensa-Suhr" name for Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Lou Reed, Bill Connors, Steve Stevens, Reb Beach, Pat Thrall, Little Steven, Victor Bailey Pensa-Suhr Bass, Chuck Loeb, Eddie Martinez (Robert Palmer) and many others.
With an obsession for tube amp design, John left NYC to work with Robert Bradshaw in 91' and designed the CAA 3+ tube pre-amp and CAA OD100 amp with Robert Bradshaw. Four years later John felt his original calling and accepted a job as Senior Master Builder at the Fender Custom Shop. There he built custom guitars to order and was involved in R&D for new product development. His clients included and still include Michael Landau, Scott Henderson and Peter Frampton.
Making his true dream a reality, John Suhr has now opened up his own small factory building custom guitars to order. At "Suhr Guitars" we are convinced that a hand built guitar can be produced utilizing New World technology. All our bodies and necks are made by us using a state of the art CNC router, 20 years of practical experience and hundreds of hours in programming. It is this total control that helps us produce one of the finest guitars available today. This of course does not replace the handwork still necessary to produce a fine guitar. Each guitar is made by one builder, no assembly lines here. Attention to detail, playability, consistency and tone is what we are about. We believe in vintage truss rod construction, tight neck fits, reliable plain grain neck woods, thin finishes and plenty of options to please every style of player. Pickups offered include our own pickups, custom built for Suhr guitars DiMarzio pickups and Seymour Duncan models. We will also install pickups supplied by the customer.