Not impressed with Suhr or their dealers (a rant)

Mark's Tone said:
Maybe he was a royal prick and they don't like him ?:lol
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Even if that would be the case (Which it is not. I've seen the emails.) business is an exchange of money and a product. If you put down a pre-payment of $1000 you don't get treated like this. For that price Suhr's customer service should be 100% positive. I thought American's sue people for smaller stuff than this.....
 
All my Suhrs have been custom ordered and I have never had a problem.

As a matter of fact, I have a new one in the oven (hope to have it by end of summer)

Suhr Order
January 16, 2014
Classic

  • Chambered
  • Alder (lightweight)
  • Black (front and back)
  • No scraped binding
  • AB face an side dots
  • AB logo
  • Roasted Maple neck (no gloss, non-tinted)
  • Original headstock
  • Rosewood fretboard
  • Even C medium .840” - .920”
  • 1.65” Nut width
  • Black Tusq nut
  • Side jack
  • SSC
  • 9 - 12’ compound radius
  • 5-way blade, volume, tone, tone
  • Single, single, hum
  • V 60 single coils (middle, neck) with Black covers
  • SSH (bridge, black)
  • Gold hardware
  • Tortoise pickguard
  • Gotoh Vintage Trem (6 screw, solid saddles, steel block, Non-recessed)
  • Suhr locking tuners (same as 17384)
  • Medium SS frets
  • Hardshell case (black classic)
** Added spec: Coil Tap (all positions on 5-way must be silent

To me it sounds like the dealer is an idiot and you should actually write a note to John Suhr himself.

Suhr makes some of the best guitars on the planet so I would not be put off because you dealt with an idiot.

One more thing -- the dealer said 3 months -- he is full of shit. 6-9 months is the average for a custom Suhr depending on what the dealer currently has in the hopper (store vs client) and if he can take one of his store slots and give it to you -- if not you jump to the end of the line based on what the next available slot is for the dealer (which could push you into the following year).
 
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So you understand how this works -- dealers have build slots based on their commitments (x guitars , Jan, Feb, June, Oct etc) -- so in this case they went out and picked tops for guitars that most likely were already scheduled to be built for the dealer.

This is not the case for a "custom" order. The only way you can move up is if the dealer has a scheduled production slot for a guitar that has not been built yet that he is willing to give to you.

The problem I think is that because the lower cost Suhr pro line guitars are more widely distributed (great guitars by the way), these "new" dealers now think they are experts on suhr guitars and can handle custom orders for the higher end guitars.

I would not even consider ordering a custom guitar from a dealer that does not have several custom ordered (for the store) available for purchase but only carries the other suhr lines.



Clark Kent said:


That proves that all their claims of delays etc. are bullshit. Imagine the look on my friends face when his guitar was supposed to be ready 6 months ago when that video came out and they're saying. "It only took 2 months."

F*** SUHR!
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R.D. said:
Is your neck "Roasted" ? Maybe they didn't mention it because the roasting process is supposed to stabilize the Birdseye maple. And I think that Suhr even extends the warranty to Roasted Birdseye ..., before the roasted became available, the didn't do that ....
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Yes, I specifically asked for the roasted neck. At the time I placed the order I wasn't thinking about the process involved, I just thought it had a great look. I just found out that it does help stabilize the wood and the neck comes with a "limited lifetime warranty" (not transferable if I sell the guitar. Fat chance. After all this, I'm taking this one to my grave.)
 
Clark Kent said:
And John Suhr has lost it. He used to be something special... now he's just trying his best to maintain a good reputation and that's the only motivation for him being a nice guy. Not a genuine nice guy... there's a big difference.

F*** SUHR!
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:lol I've never seen someone get so torqued off about SOMEONE ELSE'S bad guitar experience. LOL

I've been dealing with Suhr for years, and I can't comment on whether John is a "nice" guy, (and don't care honestly) but what I can tell you from my experience, is that their build quality is still second to none, and their customer service is exceptional. In all of my interactions with John, he has been a consummate professional, and always focused on ensuring that I'm a happy customer.
 


mrstrat said:
:lol I've never seen someone get so torqued off about SOMEONE ELSE'S bad guitar experience. LOL

I've been dealing with Suhr for years, and I can't comment on whether John is a "nice" guy, (and don't care honestly) but what I can tell you from my experience, is that their build quality is still second to none, and their customer service is exceptional. In all of my interactions with John, he has been a consummate professional, and always focused on ensuring that I'm a happy customer.
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mrstrat said:
:lol I've never seen someone get so torqued off about SOMEONE ELSE'S bad guitar experience. LOL

I've been dealing with Suhr for years, and I can't comment on whether John is a "nice" guy, (and don't care honestly) but what I can tell you from my experience, is that their build quality is still second to none, and their customer service is exceptional. In all of my interactions with John, he has been a consummate professional, and always focused on ensuring that I'm a happy customer.
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:D Well let's just say that my personal motive behind this is that I was planning to get a custom guitar from them but now I need to look elsewhere. That will be hard though.

Here's a link to my friends thread at sevenstring with Suhr porn pics: NGD: Suhr Modern 7 -BURL top with Epic Fails- - SevenString.org
 
Clark Kent said:
:D Well let's just say that my personal motive behind this is that I was planning to get a custom guitar from them but now I need to look elsewhere. That will be hard though.

Here's a link to my friends thread at sevenstring with Suhr porn pics: NGD: Suhr Modern 7 -BURL top with Epic Fails- - SevenString.org
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I absolutely respect your decision not to use them. I'm sorry your friends' experience changed your mind about using them. From my observations of other such rants, most of the issues that folks have had, relate more to the dealers they are working through as opposed to Suhr themselves. So the lesson is, choose your dealer carefully. I love my Suhrs so much, I can't imagine not having them. I own a couple of dozen guitars, and my Suhrs are by far my favorites. Again, the build quality and tones I get out of them are unmatched, at least in any other guitar I've ever played. (Including Anderson). Peace friend! :)

Edit: After reading your friends post, I can understand him being upset absolutely...I would be too...but after looking at that gorgeous guitar he got, and he says himself it's an amazing instrument...and now he's going to sell it and all his other Suhrs because he's pissed about how long it took??? C'mon! Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. :lol
 
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As you probably read in my friends post... after the first delay he was personally in contact with John Suhr and Don and the dealer was not involved after that. It's simply not the same customer service they give to people outside US. :/

I'd love to get a real nice PRS though... but I already have three of them which are keepers and there's no way I can sell that idea to my girlfriend. :lol

But sure... there have been times when bad customer service has made me sell a product. F.ex. I sold the POD HD500 because Line6 basically doesn't listen to it's customers. Custom IR's is all people have been asking for and nothing else. Still they update the damn thing with stuff no one was asking for. :) Also... I must admit that some arguments I had with FAS back in the day played at least a small part why I sold my Axe-Fx Standard. I just couldn't help it... every time I looked into that black box I remembered Cliff personally being publicly disrespectful towards me. I dunno if that's okay in the US but in EU the first rule in customer service is that the customer is always right.
 
LVC said:
So you understand how this works -- dealers have build slots based on their commitments (x guitars , Jan, Feb, June, Oct etc) -- so in this case they went out and picked tops for guitars that most likely were already scheduled to be built for the dealer.

This is not the case for a "custom" order. The only way you can move up is if the dealer has a scheduled production slot for a guitar that has not been built yet that he is willing to give to you.

The problem I think is that because the lower cost Suhr pro line guitars are more widely distributed (great guitars by the way), these "new" dealers now think they are experts on suhr guitars and can handle custom orders for the higher end guitars.

I would not even consider ordering a custom guitar from a dealer that does not have several custom ordered (for the store) available for purchase but only carries the other suhr lines.
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About these slots. My friend HAD A SLOT through a dealer just like Wild West Guitars which was set to be ready last autumn. They went through the specs and promised that it would be ready in 3 months.
 
Hello all, just chiming in.. I Custom ordered my Suhr Modern on 11-20-13 from The Music Zoo here in NY and received it on 3-5-14. They actually told me May. It came out perfect. Great customer service.

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nicolasrivera said:
In my personal opinion, if i where looking for a new guitar like a SUHR i would look first at Tom Anderson guitars first.
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I had a nice tom anderson collection (big fan) -- but I ended selling it off in favor of Suhrs.

andersons.jpg



This one I regret selling BF or no BF.

This guitar was not only beautiful ... but sounded incredible

July9Walnut.jpg



The more gigs I did the less I used the andersons. I just had a hard time with the Buzz Feiten tuning system and playing with with a 10 piece r&b band at the time. My tuning (although impeccable by myself) sounded slightly off to me in the mix with the other players (I was the only one with BF). It bothered the shit out of me. I tried to get the good folks at TA to build me some guitars without BF at the time and it was a no go. So I switched to Suhrs.
 
Not at all the experience I had with Suhr.

I had to initiate contact when ever I wanted an update, but they were very quick to reply.

In the end my guitar came in when expected and blew me away.
 
mrstrat said:
From my observations of other such rants, most of the issues that folks have had, relate more to the dealers they are working through as opposed to Suhr themselves. So the lesson is, choose your dealer carefully.
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The cherry on top of my cake of irony is that my dealer recently won a "Dealer of the Year" Award from Suhr.

Rain said:
I Custom ordered my Suhr Modern on 11-20-13 from The Music Zoo here in NY and received it on 3-5-14. They actually told me May.
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I put my deposit down on 11-17-13. It really seems like a crapshoot how quickly and in what order these guitars get built.

I just received an image of the guitar body after paint and there's a very noticeable discoloration - a dark area - on the bengal burst quilt pattern just below the bridge. It looks like an anomaly in the wood that became more pronounced by the paint. Don't know if it was caused by the lighting in the photo, or if that's really how it looks. I'm waiting for Suhr to get back to me on this. Right now I'm on the fence on whether to just cancel the order completely and be done with it. When my PRS arrives later this week, it may make that decision much easier.
 
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