Suhr Ssh+ pickups your thoughts?

warlockII

warlockII

Fractal Fanatic
Overall I trust the opinion of people on our forum FAR more than others, hence asking this question here.

I've been contemplating trying out a Suhr SSH+ bridge pickup and wanted to see if anyone here has direct experience with them.

I have too many guitars (is there really such a thing) with a lot of different setups. That being said I seem to enjoy my Dimarzio Super Distortion for my typical Eb tuning and Peavey Wolfgang (carved top) pickups for drop D more than any other pickups. I've read conflicting reports about the SSH+ and was wondering if it might be a pickup that interests me. Yes I realize the final verdict will depend on my equipment, ears, etc. However someone might save me time/expense if it's going to definitely be in a different universe.

Thanks as always!!!
 
To me, they sound kinda of "blah" No real character to them in the 2 Suhr guitars I had them in. The lows were in a weird place, if that makes sense, and the upper mids and highs seemed un-defined. YMMV, but that pickup didn't work for me. Swapped them out soon after trying them.
 
I have two Suhrs. I have a Classic with SSS ML pups. It sounds superb. The ML pups have a great single coil vibe. Somewhere between old school and modern. Perfect for my style of playing. I also have a Suhr Modern with an HH setup. Both neck and bridge pups are SSH and to my ears they sound killer. My experience was different than Muudrock. My SSH pups have great balance and tonal clarity in the low end, transition well through the mids (no honk) and have a sweet high end. I should point out that I keep the tone pot dialed back rather than dimed. I have my tone pot at about 6 or 7 and tweak just a tad as the amp model demands. I also ride my guitar volume a lot to either clean up the pup or drive it. I should also mention that I have a boatload of other guitars (several Gibbys, Carvins, PRS, and a few Heritage guitars). My stock Suhrs are my go to guitars. I love the sound of the SSH pups. I can take the Suhrs to any gig and have the single coil and humbucker sound covered.
 
I have 2 Suhr guitars both have SSH plus pups in bridge position and kick ass. Very balanced and able to deliver live or recording. I have owned every pup Dimarzio makes, EMG, Duncan Bonamassa's ,Gibson and PRS pick ups too...... EVH (2nd best) and the Suhrs not only hang with those, they are better.

Thornbuckers in the bridge kill it in the HSH, and the V70's or ML's both make excellent SC choices for my super strat. Coupled with their noise cancelling technology Suhr remains head and shoulders above!

I play mostly classic metal tones but also drop D and older classic rock too, they do it all! Roll back the vol knob and go from face melting tones to tasteful bluesy stuff ala Andy Timmons ect.
 
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I really like the Suhr Doug Aldrich. It's hotter than my vintage DiMarzio SD, but it has a really good balanced classic rock vibe. Feels good in my SSH Charvel.
 
I have the SSH in a mahogany guitar and couldn't be happier. I did a lot of research looking for a PAF type pickup but tonally different than Gibsons or Duncans. I usually gravitate to the hotter wind like the SSH+ but the SSH won this time. Very PAF sounding with a tighter bottom end, cuts very well but is not shrill or bright in any way. May lean a bit to the darker side but I attribute that to the mahogany. Very versatile as well, responds well to a variety of gain levels and to the volume of the guitar.
 
I know the ssh+ and ssv pickups pretty well by now having had guitars with them for a few years. I prefer the ssv to the ssh+, but the thornbucker is a much better sounding pickup than both of them imo. I've got a thornbucker in 2 suhrs and an LP now and they really bring out the character of the instruments. In the LP, I had previously tried gibson, sd and bare knuckles pickups.
 
I have a Modern Satin, SSH+ in the bridge ... to me it sounds fantastic. Great pickup.
You might prefer the Aldrich though... more meat and a bit brighter top.

What type of guitar is it for?
 
Since using mostly the Fractal, I have gravitated toward low wind pickups in all my guitars.

For what I do, the amount of expression and pick dynamics is off the charts.

The Fractal can deliver any amount of gain with a simple setting. It is a joy to use with low output pickups.
 
I loved the DA in my LP. I liked the SSH in the neck, but didn't care for the SSH+ in the bridge position of my Suhr Modern.
I prefer a tight, crunchy and beefy rhythm sound and the SSH+ sounded too honky for me. Great for leads and great for rock and fusion, but surely not for a tight metal rhythm sound. At least not for me.
Replaced the PUs with two Seymour Duncan Distortion and that was exactly what my favorite guitar needed :)
 
cragginshred said:
I have 2 Suhr guitars both have SSH plus pups in bridge position and kick ass. Very balanced and able to deliver live or recording. I have owned every pup Dimarzio makes, EMG, Duncan Bonamassa's ,Gibson and PRS pick ups too...... EVH (2nd best) and the Suhrs not only hang with those, they are better.

Thornbuckers in the bridge kill it in the HSH, and the V70's or ML's both make excellent SC choices for my super strat. Coupled with their noise cancelling technology Suhr remains head and shoulders above!

I play mostly classic metal tones but also drop D and older classic rock too, they do it all! Roll back the vol knob and go from face melting tones to tasteful bluesy stuff ala Andy Timmons ect.
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I have been trying to find a comparison between the Thornbucker and SSH (I currently have the SSH in bridge). Any thoughts on thorn bucker vs the SSH for bridge? I gravitate towards higher gain (good high gain...Friedman, etc) tones but I don't need blistering stuff like super hard metal of today.
 
orion32773 said:
I have been trying to find a comparison between the Thornbucker and SSH (I currently have the SSH in bridge). Any thoughts on thorn bucker vs the SSH for bridge? I gravitate towards higher gain (good high gain...Friedman, etc) tones but I don't need blistering stuff like super hard metal of today.
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Well, you replied to a thread from 2016 ;) The Thornbucker is a a low output PAF-style pickup. The SSH is higher output, probably darker and more compressed.
 
Yep I know. as you can see I haven’t seen many google results and this thread keeps popping up so figured I would just ask you ;-) thanks for the info!
 
@orion32773 I had the Thornbucker for a minute -good but not mind blowing. Very low output which has a place for sure, but it was a little too low for me. Pete can make a tennis racket sound great!
 
I’ll have to check out the output and compare it to my Burstbucker pros in the les Paul I have, although I know that the BB are not low output
 
I love it in my Suhr standard, and hated it in my Suhr modern. Modern got the DiMarzio Mo Joe in the bridge position now, with excellent results.
 
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