Suhr & Kemper

I was in a nice local store that caters to higher end gear (i.e. boutique) and the salesman knew some of the Super Strat guitar makers (Tom Anderson, John Suhr, etc) and gave me a Suhr Classic Strat to play since he had one.

I initially thought he said to me "I've got a Custom Strat that will blow your mind" and I said "probably not, I've got a really nice Thorn" and he did a double take and said "have you played a Suhr before?" and I said "I thought you said Custom Shop Strat, like from Fender" and he said "No, I said Custom Suhr Classic" to which I said "Oh, old age, misheard you, well, that wouldn't surprise me with all the good things I've read about them, yeah, let me play it!"

We got to talking about Amps, and he had me play a local Carr that was a sweet-spot Princeton knock-off and I told him I had a Kemper and didn't pine for boutique amps anymore. He said their store just became a Kemper dealer last year and thought a lot of them. This took me back a bit because I was JUST in this shop 2 months ago and another salesman at the time said he'd never heard of the Kemper! But I see online that they have carried them since 2015.

Well, we got to talking and he said John Suhr had a Kemper.. I was like "he makes his own amps and still has a Kemper?" and he said "Yep". Not indicating one was better, etc, just that he had and liked it along side other amps he liked and built.

Thought it worth mentioning since I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere here. I wonder if he's profiled his own amps?

This shop (SoundPure in Durham) said they really liked MBritt's profiles as well as "Arnie Newman" rock profiles. I haven't tried those out, but was curious since I haven't read people mentioning it.

Anyways, Suhr Classic Strat is a thoroughly beautiful guitar. Can't say a bad thing about it. Super low action, stays in tune, bends like a dream, sounds just show stopping. A pefect strat. I had to come home and play my Thorn just to make sure IT was still all those things! (and it was) so I guess all these guys really know what they're doing (i.e. anderson, suhr, thorn, etc)

It's amazing I can just drive to these places within 30m. Carr amps are made in Pittsboro, NC. Swart in Wilmington. etc. Not to mention a bunch of local private luthiers that make guitars for some well known pros. You wouldn't think Raleigh, NC are has such a bunch of artisans and nice music shops.

When I moved here 25 years ago it was very much like that. Gentle, quiet, few cars, no pot holes, city-in-a-park, college town (70% of the population had degrees, obviously college town)

But today, it's HUGE. Bigger than Miami, big music acts, home of an annual Blue Grass festival, MOOG (Asheville, NC) is having the MOOGfest starting this year in Durham, NC which is 25m away from Raleigh.

The area has about a million people plus. My little town, Holly Springs, was the fastest growing town in America for a bunch of years straight in the mid 2000's (i.e. 2500 -> 33000)

Raleigh today is a place you can park your car in a suburb, and just walk, check out stores, barhop, explore. It's not touristy like Asheville is.

I also like Winston Salem's Art District which has some cool bands and Art and people from all age groups hanging out.

Quote from apr13st

Suhr classic pro is next on my list. Great fit and feel.

Yeah, I looked into that and they said it's the same quality just not "custom" so you can't go wrong with that. I'd like something of a 1950's pastel color (ie Daphne Blue, Surf Green) but the new ones at Jerry's Lefties are rather metallic hotel room colors (ie beige)

Sage would be a great colour!

I see that Prince was fond of his Madcat Anderson Tele. There is a great performance if you haven't seen it of him playing a solo at the end of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" when Harrison was posthumously inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame (so was Prince) and it's... just... perfect...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y&feature=youtu.be

I know, right? But they were typically paints made for cars in the 1950's so guys into classic cars love the colors.

I think the Beatles (John, George) got Daphne blue strats in 1965. It's the solo on Nowhere Man (put through treble EQ box 3 bounces, Paul says, as if Strats aren't trebly enough) Later they stripped, painted psychedelic, and then stripped back to just wood. But the Daphne color is the bomb.

I had my American painted locally Daphne but I haven't touched it since finding for sale a rare used Thorn strat (lefty)

Quote from lef38

I have a suhr Classic Pro and I think it's the best guitar in the world, simply
Here is what you get when you buy this model, from top to bottom :

- staggered (so, no string trees) locking tuners

- Indian Rosewood fingerboard, got quite dark after applying lemon oil

- 9-12” compound fingerboard radius

- Tinted Quartersawn Maple neck

- stainless steel frets

- PLEK setup

- very tight neck/body fit (way tighter than my Deluxe & Eric Johnson strats) for better vibrations transmission

- hum reduction system that has no impact on tone (and no batteries) , you have to try it to believe it

- full shielding

- pickups: can't say, I swapped them for Leosound's redhouse pickups on first day

- very thin satin acrylic urethane finish : lets the wood breathe and vibrate + smooth feel + the thumb slides incredibly easily on the back of the neck

- 5-way selector is a superswitch : they could have used a standard switch, but no they give you the best, even if you don't ever notice.
The superswitch allowed me to rewire intermediate positions as series, without the need to buy a new switch (which I had planned to do).

- and most importantly : high end quality woods

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I notice hum on the usual 1,3,5 selections on this Classic. Does the Pro come with hum canceling but some Classic's not? (I assume Classics are all custom shop so it may be a selection one chooses?) My Thorn has no hum on any selection so playing the Suhr was a bit jarring at first, lol, but entirely like the Strat you'd expect in that regard.