New Suhr has "dead" notes :(

Update today from Suhr: they are building me a new neck per John Suhr due to the serious lack of sustain on those notes.

Really cool to hear they are taking care of it.

I'm visiting a friend with a Nik Huber deal, and those make me want to sell everything to get one for the next month haha. And there's a local dealer. Not in the cards for a very long time, but definitely on the list.
 
Really cool to hear they are taking care of it.

I'm visiting a friend with a Nik Huber deal, and those make me want to sell everything to get one for the next month haha. And there's a local dealer. Not in the cards for a very long time, but definitely on the list.
Those are beautiful guitars for sure!
 
I had a similar issue on my Suhr Antique T... one dead note on the G string but it was 5th fret "C" note. I changed pickups and it went away.

Last week on the same guitar, the open B string was dead, no sustain at all. Changed strings and the problem is gone.

Suhr's specs for neck relief are .005" - .007" at the 7th fret with the 1st fret and 17th fret fretted. I'd check that first, then change strings. Then send it back to them.
 
Really cool to hear they are taking care of it.

I'm visiting a friend with a Nik Huber deal, and those make me want to sell everything to get one for the next month haha. And there's a local dealer. Not in the cards for a very long time, but definitely on the list.
Just saw this after I posted the above post... Excellent news! Suhr has incredible customer service.
 
John will take care of you. The reason you'r getting a new neck is because of the resonant frequency of the wood it is made of does not work well with the body, not any manufacturing defect. I would say you find this on quite a large number of guitars at any price point. I am a repair tech 30 years full time and Ive played and worked on just about everything over the years. You won't find a better built guitar at any price than Suhr. Plenty as good but John is on the details.
 
I've had (2) guitars over the years with dead spots. One was late 80's Hamer double cutaway. It had a 'hog neck, 'hog body with a carved quilt maple cap. It was dead as a mackerel at the 12th fret on the G string. I had bought it used, but contacted Hamer anyway. They said to send it back to them. A month later they returned it with a letter. The letter said the problem was caused by the particular pieces of wood (resonance) in that guitar. Every G note on it was dead-ish per their inspection. They replaced the light weight tuners with a heavier version and that helped quite a bit. However, it didn't completely resolve it. As said before in this thread, once you know it's there, it'll annoy you every time you pick it up. I sent that guitar down the road.

Next one was a recent single cut PRS with a beautiful quilted top. Same wood combination as the Hamer. The PRS was worse because the dead range of notes was wider. I just traded it back to the place I bought it from online knowing it couldn't be fixed

As said before, play before you buy
 
I've had (2) guitars over the years with dead spots. One was late 80's Hamer double cutaway. It had a 'hog neck, 'hog body with a carved quilt maple cap. It was dead as a mackerel at the 12th fret on the G string. I had bought it used, but contacted Hamer anyway. They said to send it back to them. A month later they returned it with a letter. The letter said the problem was caused by the particular pieces of wood (resonance) in that guitar. Every G note on it was dead-ish per their inspection. They replaced the light weight tuners with a heavier version and that helped quite a bit. However, it didn't completely resolve it. As said before in this thread, once you know it's there, it'll annoy you every time you pick it up. I sent that guitar down the road.

Next one was a recent single cut PRS with a beautiful quilted top. Same wood combination as the Hamer. The PRS was worse because the dead range of notes was wider. I just traded it back to the place I bought it from online knowing it couldn't be fixed

As said before, play before you buy
Interesting, I have the same issue with my '91 PRS (was my first expensive guitar I bought when I started working and saved enough), it is the 9th fret, G-string (from what I read in this thread, it is always the G-string ?). You hear/read that a lot in forums for the early PRS's. After that they changed the heel somewhat. Anyhow: also Mahog body and neck and flamed maple top. I learned to live with it, BTW.
 
I had a similar issue with a 20th anniversary PRS CU24 on the 9th fret G string. The note didn't die, but the fundamental would cut out early and the harmonics take over. I actually thought it sounded really cool.
 
Oh boy... It's gonna be like New Guitar Day again!

Suhr has finished building my new (slightly slimmer) neck, rewiring the pickups and reassembling it.

Waiting on shipping :)
Deep thoughts

Can you have them make another just like yours and send it to my address?


I'd like to check it out and really see what the fuss is about. I'm sure Suhr won't mind.
He'll see this and say "sure....why not". ;)
 
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The eagle has landed!

FedEx kindly left my signature required package on my doorstep with no request for signature... Fortunately, I was home and it was in the house before the truck had left the front of my house.

I opened the box prepared to take it right out and inspect it but the inside of the box was pretty warm (mid-90s at delivery time), so I let it sit a couple hours to acclimate a bit.

I just finished playing for about 45 minutes... Need to put 9-42 strings on it, 10s are not what I'm used to.

Good news:

The slightly slimmer neck profile (.780-.830 vs .800-.850) is great!

The new wiring is really nice - both neck and bridge pickups can be individually switched from series to parallel via push pots and the middle position is neck+bridge while keeping the middle single coil in positions 2 and 4. Lots of toneful combinations possible there, and they sound great in parallel :)

Less than good news:

The same 2 notes still have less sustain than others, but it does seem a bit improved.

Thanks everyone for your moral support through the last 6+ months!
 
The eagle has landed!

FedEx kindly left my signature required package on my doorstep with no request for signature... Fortunately, I was home and it was in the house before the truck had left the front of my house.

I opened the box prepared to take it right out and inspect it but the inside of the box was pretty warm (mid-90s at delivery time), so I let it sit a couple hours to acclimate a bit.

I just finished playing for about 45 minutes... Need to put 9-42 strings on it, 10s are not what I'm used to.

Good news:

The slightly slimmer neck profile (.780-.830 vs .800-.850) is great!

The new wiring is really nice - both neck and bridge pickups can be individually switched from series to parallel via push pots and the middle position is neck+bridge while keeping the middle single coil in positions 2 and 4. Lots of toneful combinations possible there, and they sound great in parallel :)

Less than good news:

The same 2 notes still have less sustain than others, but it does seem a bit improved.

Thanks everyone for your moral support through the last 6+ months!
Try the middle position and either of the humbuckers in parallel. The lower output pickup loads the other, and does interesting things with the tone.

Neck in parallel with bridge in series gets a sort-of Telecastery midrange character to it on pretty much all of mine that have humbuckers (SG Special, PRS SE24 Standard and 245).

Neck in series with bridge in parallel gets a bit more into the Tele-with-a-neck-humbucker zone, so kinda Micawber or Albert Collins or Andy Summers depending on where you go with it.

Add OOP or 1/2 OOP, and some really cool tones emerge....
 
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Try the middle position and either of the humbuckers in parallel. The lower output pickup loads the other, and dies interestin things with the tone.

Neck in parallel with bridge in series gets a sort-of Telecastery midrange character to it on pretty much all of mine that have humbuckers (SG Special, PRS SE24 Standard and 245).

Neck in series with bridge in parallel gets a bit more into the Tele-with-a-neck-humbucker zone, so kinda Micawber or Albert Collins or Andy Summers depending on where you go with it.

Add OOP or 1/2 OOP, and some really cool tones emerge....
Yes... Exactly the sounds I was enjoying the most :)
 
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