Why are Suhr 7s so rare now?

[eaeolian]

I will say, I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with an ESP USA M7 next. Similar price and also awesome.

ESP has been the only company that even interests me, although I still think it's insane to spend that sort of money on a guitar.

Note that I say this as I play my CS Jackson.

 

[couverdure]

This is probably the only time I've ever seen a 7-string Suhr in a music video.

Although, Sae Otsuka (the guitarist here) uses a PRS Holcomb 7 for live performances to complement her yellow Custom 24.

 

[oremus91]

Wow the top on that thing is unreal, cool to see it in that context too thanks for posting!

Anyone know what the finish is called?

 

[Andromalia]

From this side of the atlantic, pricing is an issue.
Picking prices from Thomann:

Suhr classic is at 2800.
The PT sig is 3800
The Mateus Asato is 4222
A Modern Satin is 2800
A Modern Plus is 3444

They just don't have the name recognition that will make people spend the same amount of money for an ESP or Music Man.
If I had 4K to spend, (which I don't, buying a house atm) I'd get an ESP for suhr. But then it's me, ESP is the brand that made me shiny-eyed when I was 18.

And, for some reason, Tom Andersons appeal more to me:
https://www.guitarsrebellion.com/co...om-anderson-drop-top-black-surf-maple-123018a

 

[oremus91]

But then it's me, ESP is the brand that made me shiny-eyed when I was 18.

I think a lot of us are in this boat, myself included.

Tom Anderson seems like another amazing brand, but even more difficult to get your hands on to test than Suhr.

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

I have a Suhr 7. Love the guitar. I got it about a year ago, but there was a 1 year wait for the build, which I feel is just too long. I had to send it back to redo the abalone side dots because they were barely visible over the roasted birdseye maple - a fault I don't think you should run into with a $4,500 guitar. Also, been wanting to put some War Pigs in it since I got it, just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 

[Willtato]

Honestly, as others have said, Suhr has a lot of competition at this point. The main impression I get of their guitars and as a company is that they are more of the traditional design as opposed to modern. When people go for extended range, it's normally a modern thing, which is why modern designs and companies do so much well.

If I were to think of a country where this would be more likely to have a lot of them, then it would be Japan. However, there's even more competition there. There you get Schecter Research, but they also buy Anderson (as they essentially originated from the same place). You also get ESP custom shop, with their snappers and signatures. Every brand in Japan basically has its own idea about a 7st super strat, be it Combat or T's guitars. If you were to ask me if I were to gofor a suhr or T's, I'd go for the T's any day. A smaller shop with more love put into the guitars. You also get the copy cats in the Western Market like Schecter and Ibanez, where for much more accessible pricing will provide you with something arguably similar. I'm not sure if FGN do a 7st, but if they do, then there's more competition.

Caparison does things differently, and deserve more attention, more than Suhr I believe, although I'm not into their designs.

I could spend all day listing Japanese companies which do the same thing. It just shows that what Suhr does isn't very 'special'. Suhr isn't bad, in fact they're good, but I don't really personally see much reason personally choosing those over something else, other than accessibility, but even that shouldn't play much a factor in this. A guitar has to be almost perfect at what it does to chuck that much money towards it.


Also, If you're going to spend over 3k on a guitar, might as well go full custom.

Edit: Japan's where it's all at I think. I'll live there someday.

 

[narad]

Honestly, as others have said, Suhr has a lot of competition at this point. The main impression I get of their guitars and as a company is that they are more of the traditional design as opposed to modern. When people go for extended range, it's normally a modern thing, which is why modern designs and companies do so much well.

If I were to think of a country where this would be more likely to have a lot of them, then it would be Japan. However, there's even more competition there. There you get Schecter Research, but they also buy Anderson (as they essentially originated from the same place). You also get ESP custom shop, with their snappers and signatures. Every brand in Japan basically has its own idea about a 7st super strat, be it Combat or T's guitars. If you were to ask me if I were to gofor a suhr or T's, I'd go for the T's any day. A smaller shop with more love put into the guitars. You also get the copy cats in the Western Market like Schecter and Ibanez, where for much more accessible pricing will provide you with something arguably similar. I'm not sure if FGN do a 7st, but if they do, then there's more competition.

Caparison does things differently, and deserve more attention, more than Suhr I believe, although I'm not into their designs.

I could spend all day listing Japanese companies which do the same thing. It just shows that what Suhr does isn't very 'special'. Suhr isn't bad, in fact they're good, but I don't really personally see much reason personally choosing those over something else, other than accessibility, but even that shouldn't play much a factor in this. A guitar has to be almost perfect at what it does to chuck that much money towards it.


Also, If you're going to spend over 3k on a guitar, might as well go full custom.

Edit: Japan's where it's all at I think. I'll live there someday.

I don't know. I've played all of these (except for Tom Anderson) and I own/play a Suhr classic pro as my main guitar. I like the T's arc series as their own thing, but their superstrat stuff, while good, just didn't "wow" me. I think the Suhr pickups may be better.

From the pov of the Japanese market, the general impression I get is that everyone also favors Suhr/TA over the domestic brands.

 

[guillermo701]

I got this one from a friend and it is the best 7 string guitar I ever owned.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Honestly, as others have said, Suhr has a lot of competition at this point. The main impression I get of their guitars and as a company is that they are more of the traditional design as opposed to modern. When people go for extended range, it's normally a modern thing, which is why modern designs and companies do so much well.

If I were to think of a country where this would be more likely to have a lot of them, then it would be Japan. However, there's even more competition there. There you get Schecter Research, but they also buy Anderson (as they essentially originated from the same place). You also get ESP custom shop, with their snappers and signatures. Every brand in Japan basically has its own idea about a 7st super strat, be it Combat or T's guitars. If you were to ask me if I were to gofor a suhr or T's, I'd go for the T's any day. A smaller shop with more love put into the guitars. You also get the copy cats in the Western Market like Schecter and Ibanez, where for much more accessible pricing will provide you with something arguably similar. I'm not sure if FGN do a 7st, but if they do, then there's more competition.

Caparison does things differently, and deserve more attention, more than Suhr I believe, although I'm not into their designs.

I could spend all day listing Japanese companies which do the same thing. It just shows that what Suhr does isn't very 'special'. Suhr isn't bad, in fact they're good, but I don't really personally see much reason personally choosing those over something else, other than accessibility, but even that shouldn't play much a factor in this. A guitar has to be almost perfect at what it does to chuck that much money towards it.


Also, If you're going to spend over 3k on a guitar, might as well go full custom.

Edit: Japan's where it's all at I think. I'll live there someday.

Suhr makes tons of "Strats" and "Teles", but there's nothing objectively less modern about a Modern 7 vs. stuff like ESP M-IIs, Ibanez RG7s, etc. It's the same 24-fret suoer-strat platform that uses the industry standard Schaller, Hipshot, and Gotoh hardware that everyone else uses.

Like I said earlier, don't let the price of some of the more over the top builds fool you. My builds were cheaper than extremely similar guitars quoted by ESP and Jackson, and just about all the small shops worth throwing money at that won't take years to build. They were also faster (five months from order placed to delivery).

As for quality, I've been at this a long time, and the quality is beyond reproach. Same with customer service. You can find equal, but you won't find better.

I'm not sure if it's your Japanophila talking, but Caparison can't hold a candle to Suhr, at least not consistently.

 

[Jonathan20022]

Honestly, as others have said, Suhr has a lot of competition at this point. The main impression I get of their guitars and as a company is that they are more of the traditional design as opposed to modern. When people go for extended range, it's normally a modern thing, which is why modern designs and companies do so much well.

If I were to think of a country where this would be more likely to have a lot of them, then it would be Japan. However, there's even more competition there. There you get Schecter Research, but they also buy Anderson (as they essentially originated from the same place). You also get ESP custom shop, with their snappers and signatures. Every brand in Japan basically has its own idea about a 7st super strat, be it Combat or T's guitars. If you were to ask me if I were to gofor a suhr or T's, I'd go for the T's any day. A smaller shop with more love put into the guitars. You also get the copy cats in the Western Market like Schecter and Ibanez, where for much more accessible pricing will provide you with something arguably similar. I'm not sure if FGN do a 7st, but if they do, then there's more competition.

Caparison does things differently, and deserve more attention, more than Suhr I believe, although I'm not into their designs.

I could spend all day listing Japanese companies which do the same thing. It just shows that what Suhr does isn't very 'special'. Suhr isn't bad, in fact they're good, but I don't really personally see much reason personally choosing those over something else, other than accessibility, but even that shouldn't play much a factor in this. A guitar has to be almost perfect at what it does to chuck that much money towards it.


Also, If you're going to spend over 3k on a guitar, might as well go full custom.

Edit: Japan's where it's all at I think. I'll live there someday.

The argument you're trying to make is one that probably holds up better when asserting value rather than some objective superiority in general instrument construction.

All the brands you mentioned build to an excellent standard, where differentiating and ranking them doesn't really do much for anyone besides surface level observations. And to your point, if you're buying something in the 3 - 4k range there is a ton of competition of course but every brand actually does build drastically different products.

Comparing a Suhr Classic S and the Tom Anderson Classic S is going to be one of the biggest wastes of time. Everything you'd nit pick about either would essentially be a subjective point.

At that point, you just pick between the following:
Design/Silhouette preference
Wood Choice Options
Neck Joint Comfort
Factory Pickup Selection

Then you order a custom from either brand, and make sure the neck has the shape/dimensions that you prefer (scale/shape/radius/fret size/etc).

But generally buying something that has to be imported is always going to be a wash due to import taxation in the first place. So if your point is above all I said before, value for cost. Yeah you should probably only really be buying the Suhr/TA in the states, and then go for a brand that produces a similar/equivalent product in your country.

EDIT: Max raises a good point, I think my custom Classic S in Shell Pink last year was around 2700 out the door from a dealer I had worked with previously. And the Suhr 7 I traded for a few years back had so many options and top end wood choices that of course that build wound up costing the original owner 5k+.

 

[diagrammatiks]

my ta 7 was probably the best guitar I ever owned and my most expensive single purchase of a guitar to date at 3500.

Probably shouldn't have sold it.

suhr/ta might look very similar from afar but side by side they are very different guitars with very different design philosophies.

as for why there aren't that many suhr 7s...I just don't think it's a market that suhr is actively pursuing.

They'll make you one but it's not really their core market.

TA won't even make you one anymore.

 

[Willtato]

Apologies, looks like I've used the wrong words. Sorry If I upset you all.

"I'm not sure if it's your Japanophila talking, but Caparison can't hold a candle to Suhr, at least not consistently."
I think that you've hit the nail on the head. I think of consistency, with a proven formula when I think Suhr. I can probably see myself owning a Suhr over a Caparison any day, but what I really admire about the Caparison is the uniqueness of it - the inlays, pickup knob and those beautiful thick pieces of Flame. I see the suhr as using a tried and tested formula and making it the best it can be. I hope you understand my point.

I honestly see something special in small custom brands. When I think of a normal guitar, it's the way that the designer intended it to be, whereas a custom has a design that you want even though as an instrument, it might make it objectively worse. I'd consider T's as more of a custom personally, which is what makes me attracted to it - closer to the people who make it.

That said, I saw that some people said that ESP opened their eyes up. To me personally, it was a Schecter SD with the pickguard, mainly because it was the first time that I saw a combination that I liked so much, and while they aren't cheap, they aren't the premium pieces that I think we're discussing here. I was eyeing a TA Guardian Angel sometime back - it had everything I wanted from a normal guitar, but they're never cheap, unfortunately.

 

[eaeolian]

as for why there aren't that many suhr 7s...I just don't think it's a market that suhr is actively pursuing.

They'll make you one but it's not really their core market.

TA won't even make you one anymore.

Why bother, honestly? It's enough of a distraction from their core business that it's not worth it, especially since what most people want is now covered by a production guitar.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Why bother, honestly? It's enough of a distraction from their core business that it's not worth it, especially since what most people want is now covered by a production guitar.

It has always been a pet project of Kevin, John's son. He's the one that's pushed the model to production and arranged the early runs.

 

[diagrammatiks]

It has always been a pet project of Kevin, John's son. He's the one that's pushed the model to production and arranged the early runs.

Kevin's just sitting in the background waiting to kiesel the brand.

 

[mbardu]

I'm not sure if it's your Japanophila talking, but Caparison can't hold a candle to Suhr, at least not consistently.

Weeeeb alert

Plus your comparison is not fair!
You picked the number quality from Suhr (consistency), which also hapens to be the absolute worst trait of Caparison!
It's like saying "Suhr can't hold a candle to Caparison, at least in terms of having funky designs and the best clock inlays of the two".

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Kevin's just sitting in the background waiting to kiesel the brand.

I know you're joking, but Kevin has been pretty involved with the operation for some time now.

Weeeeb alert

Plus your comparison is not fair!
You picked the number quality from Suhr (consistency), which also hapens to be the absolute worst trait of Caparison!
It's like saying "Suhr can't hold a candle to Caparison, at least in terms of having funky designs and the best clock inlays of the two".

I will concede that Cap has some badass inlays, and just cool looking guitars overall. If I wanted a guitar to hang over the fireplace, I'd definitely go Caparison over Suhr. Incidentally, the Cap would probably feel most at home in the fireplace.

 

[gunch]

I was never hot on the Modern silhouette but if it's a functional/ergonomic thing I understand it better now

 

[mbardu]

If I wanted a guitar to hang over the fireplace, I'd definitely go Caparison over Suhr. Incidentally, the Cap would probably feel most at home in the fireplace.

Sounds like a guy who hasn't played a great Caparison. And in fairness they're not making it easy, because unlike Suhr, you often have to try 3 or 4 of them to find that one among those with issues