EBMM Cutlass vs PRS Fiore vs Fender Strat vs ?

Romo82 said:
That's interesting feedback regarding the pickup output. I've always considered SC's to be low output in general so to see you mention the Cutlass pickups being weak is disconcerting.

The more I look in to the options, the more it seems Fender may have hit all the right notes with the American Ultra. It's starting to look like a 2 horse race between Fender and Suhr and that could make it hard for the Suhr to stand up to the Fender. I'm sure the build quality is better with the Suhr but is it $1000 better?
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Either way, you can't really go wrong. Both are high quality guitars. I think there are several things that make the Suhr competitive despite the higher price tag.

1. Stainless steel frets finished to a mirror polish. The Fender will probably have good fretwork, but nickel frets will wear significantly faster than stainless. I can't find any signs of fret wear on my 2018 Suhr classic S despite playing it regularly. Finding a luthier who does quality fretwork is difficult and the cost to crown / level / re-fret will be in the hundreds of dollars. If you have several guitars or are the type of player who has a really light touch then even nickel frets will last a long time, so this may be less important to you than it is to me.

2. The Suhr SSCII allows you to use any standard single coil pickup and still have noiseless performance. The Fender comes with their noiseless pickups which you may end up swapping. If you want to maintain the noiseless operation that will limit your pickup choices. I can also vouch for the SSCII being excellent at suppressing noise. Even with high gain amp settings and high volume the single coil settings on the Suhr are just as quiet as the HB pickup (the guitar is HSS).

3. Unbeatable warranty support. Suhr stands behind their products. You can call them and talk to real people if you have any issues or questions. You can PM John Suhr on TGP. I have corresponded with him and he's easy to converse with.
 
sounds like you should really make a list of the variables you want/ don't want/ must have..everything from the hardware to neck shape and all the smaller aspects. See which guitars check those boxes along with price and try to find one close to you if you can to try. No matter how much great information everyone here has, we all have our own certain preferences and that final deciding factor that goes with it. I hope you find that perfect one because we all know the frustrations on buying a new axe...best of luck!
 
unix-guy said:
It's fairly easy to use different strings. Why would this be a problem?
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Ordinarily it isn't a problem. The Cutlass, however, has a compensated nut -- which is a good thing -- but I would have to have had the nut filed. If the hybrids were the only issue I'd have done it, but I had decided to sell it and I did not want to modify the nut.
 
The Fender Ultra Luxe also have SS frets.

I found the Ultra noiseless pickups really good at noise suppression with gainy sounds, and they sound really good in a rock setting. They are not as chimey as conventional SC pickups, so doing SRV style blues might not sound as good.
 
Henry said:
The Fender Ultra Luxe also have SS frets.

I found the Ultra noiseless pickups really good at noise suppression with gainy sounds, and they sound really good in a rock setting. They are not as chimey as conventional SC pickups, so doing SRV style blues might not sound as good.
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Thank you! I was going in circles trying to clarify that, I thought the Ultra had SS frets but everything I read didn't confirm. If its the Luxe that has it then that's another check mark to the Suhr.
 
bleujazz3 said:
Then I'd withdraw my NJ HSS recommendation for the time...it seems that the imported NJ HSS model volume pots have issues after about 1 year's time. The solution is to replace the volume/push-pull tone pots with something more reliable. Which may be my only option regards the NJ HSS.

I'll be contacting my guitar tech buddy upstate and asking if he could perform a swap, or it this might need the expertise of a guitar tech from a bonafide shop.
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Just to reinsert a recommendation regards the Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional HSS...did some research research regards the electronics reliability, and discovered that some owners experienced issues with the volume pot after about a year's time. The solution was a simple one: Just replace the imported NJ HSS volume and tone pots with either CTS or Bourne pots, and no issues after that; the CTS and Bourne pots seldom have any issues if they correctly installed.

So, $43 into this, I'll ask my guitar tech friend to swap out the pots and replace the volume/tone knobs if any damage might occur removing the knobs. So, for the cost of the original guitar <$900, plus the upgrade, $45, you've got yourself a quality instrument at ½ to ⅔ the price of a Ultra or Suhr Classic...
 
Just thought to reiterate my recommendation because the volume pot typically is good for the first year. So, in small increments, I'm saving up for this upgrade by purchasing the pots and knobs, then will invest in a replacement 5-way blade switch and a Switchcraft input jack.

My guitar tech (who is up to his elbows in alligators regards work recently) will install these replacement parts when the volume pot begins to crackle or become intermittent. It'll likely be an early spring project next year when the repair is necessary, not before...I'd been pondering over this project for a time, and realized that it's quite refreshing to see a quality guitar that can be upgraded inexpensively, even at this price point...
 
Dave Merrill said:
They have some push-push pots, which are attractive to me as someone who loves switching options but detests the ergonomics of push-pulls. Anybody tried these? They look like typical Alps construction, not super high quality, but I have no idea of the actual brand. I've heard that push-push pots have reliability issues.
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I dont see any push push on the BKP website. Im the only guy in my area that uses and swears by push push. Ive heard the same reliability issues and over 15 years ive had maybe one go bad. Every guitar I own has been swapped to a push push as its vastly superior playing live to just tap the knob quickly to get to the second sound. Id rank push push then mini toggle, then push pull. Im doing a fluence classic build with a super 5 way switch and it sucks that they only do push pull with the 25k pots.
 
Vhalen50 said:
I dont see any push push on the BKP website. Im the only guy in my area that uses and swears by push push. Ive heard the same reliability issues and over 15 years ive had maybe one go bad.
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I wish I had had better luck with them years ago, but I must have gotten poorly-made ones. The switch mechanism seemed very fragile and prone to breakage on the ones I got. Bic Clic pens have had the mechanism figured out for decades, and it is both rugged and foolproof, but none of the manufacturers of these push-push switch pots seems to have seen one....

Vhalen50 said:
Every guitar I own has been swapped to a push push as its vastly superior playing live to just tap the knob quickly to get to the second sound. Id rank push push then mini toggle, then push pull.
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I agree with this, but my experience with the ones I was able to find was less than stellar....
 
Vhalen50 said:
I dont see any push push on the BKP website. Im the only guy in my area that uses and swears by push push. Ive heard the same reliability issues and over 15 years ive had maybe one go bad. Every guitar I own has been swapped to a push push as its vastly superior playing live to just tap the knob quickly to get to the second sound. Id rank push push then mini toggle, then push pull. Im doing a fluence classic build with a super 5 way switch and it sucks that they only do push pull with the 25k pots.
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Search for Push Push on the page linked to above, there's a 250k and some others.

Re reliability, I haven't heard a lot of complaints about the Fender S1 in that regard, and it's push push, 4pdt if I remember right. Might be kind of deep though maybe.
 
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I also much prefer Push/Push, I have one on my Caparison which is coming up 11 years old and still works though admittedly I dont use it everyday. Not sure on the brand but I'll take a look tonight and report back.
 
Anderson, Anderson, Anderson.... I have 2 and there is something really special about Tom's guitars. Play amazing, sound amazing...only guitar I think - it can't get any better than this.
 
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Dave Merrill said:
Search for Push Push on the page linked to above, there's a 250k and some others.

Re reliability, I haven't heard a lot of complaints about the Fender S1 in that regard, and it's push push, 4pdt if I remember right. Might be kind of deep though maybe.
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I have one in my Noventa Jazzmaster. Seems mostly ok do far. The button top part of the knob sometimes sticks a little. Maybe the sides of the knob top need a little polishing?
 
Dave Merrill said:
Search for Push Push on the page linked to above, there's a 250k and some others.

Re reliability, I haven't heard a lot of complaints about the Fender S1 in that regard, and it's push push, 4pdt if I remember right. Might be kind of deep though maybe.
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I see that now. But I would venture to bet they are the same ones you can get on amazon for 15 bucks or so. The S1 is something waaaay more complicated and powerful. It is a push push. Its kinda like having a whole other 5 sounds available if wired correctly. My Elite strat had it, but ive replaced the entire guard with a duncan everything axe guard and didnt move the s1 over. The new Ultra's seem to only use it for a neck tap. According to F, the S1 on the elite pushed in does this
  • Position one: all three pickups wired in series
  • Position two: bridge and middle pickups wired in series
  • Position three: middle and neck pickups wired in series
  • Position four: bridge and neck pickups wired out of phase, with a special tone capacitor
  • Position five: bridge and middle pickups wired in series and out of phase, in parallel with neck pickup
 
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