Help deciding Suhr vs JP6

I like my EBMM AXIS, got a used red one (like the EVH poster long time ago) for $910, hehehe, scratchy but it's my workhorse nowadays. Many of MusicMan guitars are untreated necks. Means you need to oil and wax them about once a year or so, but then the necks are so nice.

Now, again there's a lot of debate about EBMM MusicMan necks, some like them, some not.
 
Carpercen said:
Hi thank you very much for your answer.
About your answer, on the first replies of this post is stated that Satín finish can be polished in some places due to playing causing shining spots on the wood. Have experienced this? How is it?
My interest in Suhr guitars begun with Aaron Marshall/Intervals, he is playing now Suhr guitars and they look really beautiful. After some research I get to know this are top quality instruments.
How would you describe the pups? I'm looking for versatility, and after watching Aaron playing them they sure can be it. I emailed Suhr support and they told me he uses SSH+and SSV combination and those are the same pickups the modern satin or plus comes with (plus v60 in the middle).
It's interesting to me how you describe it's sound as sterile. Don't know what you mean here, all videos I've watched (demos and Aaron Marshall jam play instructional bundle) sound good, really good. How is this sterile sound you mention?
Now, my dealer contacted me and told me he could get me the satin HH with tremolo and a set of juggernauts for 2,400 (juggernauts for free) or the modern plus for 2,900 (stock pups)
I have played juggernauts before (have them on my PRS S2 which I'm selling to fund the Suhr), don't know if you have tried juggs, but what would you advice me?
The satin model is good-looking, but it doesn't have the push-pull option the plus has and I'm not sure a want some one to mod such a high end guitar.
On the modern plus the finishes are really beautiful and the risk of polishing the Satín finish bothers me...

I'd really appreciate your observation about this.

Thanks :)
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Yes I have also experienced the polishing effect on satin guitars. It's not the first one I own so I'm kind of used to it and it doesn't bother me too much. I really like the looks and feel of a satin guitar, some say the lighter the finish the more the instrument will resonate/breathe. But I can't swear upon this, I just tend to prefer these instruments. The downside to this: polished/shiny spots will appear where your body or hands are in contact with the instrument (mostly bridge, pots, belly contour and back side of the neck).On some instruments this doesn't affect the looks too much, but if this bugs you I would suggest you go directly for a polished guitar.

Have a look at this auction for shiny spot examples (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Suhr-...247818?hash=item546fb2e4ca:g:zdQAAOSw3dZc3Rnf)

I own the mahogany version and spots are not so visible.

Regarding the pickups, SSH+, V60 and SSV are the ones on my guitar. I should have chosen a better word instead of sterile. I'll put it like this, they are a modern take on classic pickups where you get all the additional features of modern pickups: clarity, tightness, articulation, high oputput... but they have kind of "neutral" voice which is good (IMO, although some hate this) so you can add (with a bit of EQ) whatever you feel is missing and you are not stuck with piercing highs or overwhelming mids right out of the box.

I have not tried the Juggs so I can't compare. I do have a set of HolyDivers (on an alder body superstrat) and a set of
RebelYells on a high end Ibanez RGA321 (mahogany+maple body, maple+rosewood neck) and I would say these sets turn the guitars into a one purpose guitar (don't take me wrong, that was the whole point to begin with). The Suhr is a different beast, it definitely is more versatile.

Regarding the push pull option, you probably won't miss it as you have a 5 way switch that will split the pickups in the intermediate positions, unless you want to do something special with your pup config... like the blower switch on the GG model that wires the bridge pickup directly to the jack so you get the full raw power of the bridge pickup upon the pressing of a switch...

One thing I should mention is that satin instruments don't hold their resale value as well as polished ones: so that's a risk or a chance if you are willing to look into the used market. I've seen Suhr Satins go for 1600 EUR in the local used market (I'm located in Europe).
 
Carpercen said:
Yes, blind buy. No chance to play one before buying. Right now the deciding is between satin with BKP Juggernaut for 2,400 or modern plus for 2,900
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EBMM have small necks in terms of width (not thin like how ibanez necks feel). If you like the neck on your S2, there's a 50/50 chance you won't like the neck on the EBMM as it's basically the opposite.

Something to consider. Both guitars are quality instruments.
 
I too had to make a blind buy, either Suhr, JP6 or Strandberg.... Ultimately went with Suhr, but I can't really help you cause I can't compare it to the other guitars haha I can tell you that the Suhr is amazing though
 
What I look if versatility, after making this decision I won't be buying another guitar in the near future as it's a big investment.

Also if you had you choose Suhr SSH+/SSV vs BKP Juggernaut, Wich one would you get?

Thanks
 
I own both a JP6 and a Suhr Modern Antique. If I had to choose between the two... I don't think I could. They are in many ways totally different guitars. The Suhr has a lot more tonal variety when it comes to the magnetic pickups, you can get everything from smooth jazzy tones on the neck, to spanky strat tones on the in-between positions, to those Intervals / Polyphia kind of tones, to heavy humbucker stuff on the bridge.

The JP6 basically has 3 sounds for the magnetic pickups, and while it's got the smooth neck tone and the crunch bridge humbucker stuff covered really well, it really only has one option for that in-between clean sound and that's with the combined split coils of both humbuckers. It gets you that classic Dream Theater clean sound that you'd probably recognize immediately if you listen to any of their albums. It sounds good, but it's not ideal for certain kinds of tones. Then on the plus side, the JP6 gets you the piezo which can either be used individually or blended with the humbuckers. It's particularly powerful with the Axe-FX since you can load up some acoustic guitar IRs and use a separate input for the pickup and get a wide range of tones that way.
 
Budda said:
EBMM have small necks in terms of width (not thin like how ibanez necks feel). If you like the neck on your S2, there's a 50/50 chance you won't like the neck on the EBMM as it's basically the opposite.

Something to consider. Both guitars are quality instruments.
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Oddly enough the JP necks are wider than typical EBMM necks (Luke, Axis, Silhouette...) But they are thin. In my case -- and I do own an Ibanez RG750 -- I was not that big of a fan of the JP6 neck. I like the EBMM Luke/Morse necks, though. Again, even if it's hard, I think trying out a neck would be better than order something expensive and regret it the next minute. *)

*) The first generation Jeff Beck custom Strats had a neck that was nicknamed 'baseball bat', it was that huge, even the second generation Jeff Beck strats have necks that are very different from normal Strat necks.
 
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