Your experiences/input on Suhr & Anderson guitars

I got on a stainless frets kick for awhile until a neck got a little twist in it. I realize now that I need to level those frets that the stainless just might be more of a pain in the ass than I bargained for. I won't go out of my way for stainless anymore, as I'll likely be doing the levelling.

Was it a one piece neck that got a little twist?
 
Another thing. Anderson guitars all have stainless steel frets. My Suhr does too, but not all of them do. I don't think I'll ever buy an expensive electric guitar without stainless steel frets in the future if I can help it. Both guitars play just as well and cleanly as the day I got them. Since the frets stay perfect and the necks are very precise, the action and playability is really nice, and the setup has not needed to be adjusted except to compensate for string gauge changes. My nickel fretted guitars show fret wear within a year, so this has been a really nice feature for me so far.

Yes, stainless steel frets - thats the one of the requirements I now have.
As well as a natural finish neck (back of neck)
 
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I'm partial to Andersons, but they are both amazing guitars.
I have not yet played an Anderson that I didn't love. So I wouldn't be super apprehensive to buying without playing (but that's just me).

I'm actually going to be selling and Anderson Bulldog soon (Trans Black).
It's absolutely beautiful....but I just found a 86 Silverburst Les Paul Custom (my dream guitar), and I need to recoup.

If you're interested, PM me.
 
You really have to try the exact one you are buying. I built up Suhr strats so much in my head. In the shop I kept trying to like it but in the end I preferred the Fender.

Saying that, I somewhat impulsively purchased a Tele online and love the thing. It is a risk though.
 
No it's a bolt on, but I really like it and it's slight. It affects frets 1 to 4 or 5 on the 1st and 2nd string. If it get's worse I'll get a new neck.

When I said one piece neck, I didn't mean a neck through. I was asking was the neck back made of just one piece. A lot of times necks that are constructed of one piece will tend to warp over time. A lot of manufacturers and builders make 3-5 piece necks regularly because the multiple piece necks are less likely to warp because the grains of the multiple pieces are all in different directions.
 
Not sure about Suhr's as I've only ever had one and didn't really gel with it but Andersons are fantastic instruments. I have a hollow drop top and like it so much (tone, playability, build quality) that I've ordered a Raven and Hollow T. Having said that, nothing plays as well as my Musicman Albert Lee and that is cheap as chips in comparison.
 
I have a Suhr Modern (thin elliptical neck) and a Suhr Classic (medium C neck). I've got a couple les pauls too. I love the Suhrs, but they are all different. Huge difference between a modern and a classic, big differences between the standard and the classic T's as well. We have a Suhr dealer here locally, I've played a few of them. one of my buddies has another 4 suhrs. They all play different. Even the same model guitar can be built with 10 different necks. Each of those necks can have a variety of fret types used. I've played Suhr's that I didn't like at all, and I've played Suhrs that were fantastic and I had to buy. It's going t o The neck is going to make a huge difference on how you bond with it. If you don't know what kind of neck profile you like, I wouldn't buy online without playing first. If you know exactly what kind of neck profile you like, and what thickness, then you can be a bit more certain that you will like it when you get it. Another friend of mine just ordered one custom, he played mine, played my other friends, and went to the dealer about a dozen times over 6 months to figure out what neck he liked.

Then there is the woods, the pickups, etc.. They all sound different too. A lot different. He uses different tone woods on every guitar. Unless they are the "pro series" they are all basically custom ordered by the dealer, based on what the dealer thinks they can sell. The dealers will order "one offs" too that Suhr will send emails on up for grabs. both of mine are one offs.

Not sure about the Anderson's, but I bet its the same. I'm willing to bet they are all just as different too.

Nothing worse than spending $3000 and finding out you don't like the neck profile, or that it sounds too bright or too dark for your preference because of a wood choice.
 
suhr is the real deal. before i played on of them i was all about ernie balls. the axis had my favorite rock tones and felt amazing playing open chords and stuff up by the headstock. my jp was a shred machine up past the 12th fret. i ordered a modern with the axis tone woods and a compound radius and its pretty close to perfect. if you know what you want you can trust suhr to make it. i also have a suhr classic that i might even like more than my modern. your tastes may change over time so its hard to say what the perfect guitar is spec wise but i can say suhr will do what you ask with a level of quality that is not found in larger companies.
 
I have had Andersons in the past, including one I had custom built. Excellent instruments, and no short cuts in the quality department. The one I custom ordered came in after 9 months and sounded too bright to me. Probably all my fault because of the woods and pickups I selected (I doubt it was the gold hardware). I ended up selling it.

Years later I got a new Suhr S-2 that I have had for a couple of years now. I really love it, and it has great tonal versatility (H-S-H pickups with a coil tap added for the neck pickup). I think it's the gold standard for the best in-between pickup sounds (positions 2 & 4 on the strat selector switch). I have a maple neck/fretboard which I prefer for the snappiness

I'm also a big PRS fan (have 3, used to have 7), and of course I have the requisite Fender Strat+ and Tele. I'll probably never sell any of these.

I may be selling the Suhr in a bit, only because I'm both moving and downsizing. PM me if you want to chat about it.
 
suhrs are nice. I got a modern from Rocket and it's good for certain things, but I could do with out it. It's well built and plays nice but I realized I'm more of a vintage guy. I have a sadowsky, melancon, prs DGT, fender strat and a carvin that get more play than the suhr. I got on a stainless frets kick for awhile until a neck got a little twist in it. I realize now that I need to level those frets that the stainless just might be more of a pain in the ass than I bargained for. I won't go out of my way for stainless anymore, as I'll likely be doing the levelling. Don't know about Andersons, but I was looking for one a while back and after researching it on the web it seemed to me they were more modern sounding, sort of like the Suhr I have, so I forgot about it. I know suhr is very good and think Andersons are also, so you'd be getting a really nice guitar, but after you get it you may be surprised it's not all you thought it would be. Like Marks Tone said, better to play it first. I pretty much only get guitars that have a return policy, unless they just seem like a killer deal. You pay more for the return policy, but I think you get what you pay for.

Hey Randy - what model of Suhr do you have? I've had a hankering to play one and see how they feel...

I'm pretty particular to the Ibanez Wizard necks so most guitars feel a bit too thick in the neck for my tastes.

Kevin


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Hey Randy - what model of Suhr do you have? I've had a hankering to play one and see how they feel...

I'm pretty particular to the Ibanez Wizard necks so most guitars feel a bit too thick in the neck for my tastes.

When I was trying to decide what I wanted on my Custom Classic, I took measurements of my Custom Shop Set Neck strat, a 90's Ibanez RG 750 and a late 80's Jackson strat. All of which I had played for years and really liked. I tried to visualize what I wanted and chose the "Even C RB" which is .800 to .850 and a 10-14 radius.

It's somewhere between the Jackson and the Strat. A shoulder closer to the Jackson and the back similar to the Strat but not as beefy as either. As for comparing it to the Ibanez, didn't the older Ibanez's have thinner necks than the newer ones? If so it's not like that. IIRC the newer Ibanez's have more of a shoulder on them, correct? Suhr's Elliptical neck may be closer to those but a bit more girth. They also seem to be the most common.

After 15 minutes of playing I didn't even notice the shoulder. I'd like to try the Even C Slim. But I think it'd be splitting hairs.

It's easily my favorite guitar of all time. YYMV
 
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When I said one piece neck, I didn't mean a neck through. I was asking was the neck back made of just one piece. A lot of times necks that are constructed of one piece will tend to warp over time. A lot of manufacturers and builders make 3-5 piece necks regularly because the multiple piece necks are less likely to warp because the grains of the multiple pieces are all in different directions.

Oh yeah, sorry I misread. one piece maple. Not sure if the fingerboard is an overlay or not. (too lazy to go check...)
 
Hey Randy - what model of Suhr do you have? I've had a hankering to play one and see how they feel...

I'm pretty particular to the Ibanez Wizard necks so most guitars feel a bit too thick in the neck for my tastes.

Kevin

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Modern with the elliptical neck.
 
I just got my first Suhr, Pro S1, SSH pickups, alder body and rosewood fretboard. The body shape and headstock are ugly, the looks of this particular one are extremely plain: black with white pickguard. I can't shake off the feeling of a $100 Yamaha pacifica, which looks exactly the same as far as the plastics and body shape goes. A new pickguard will cure this. Extremely well made, the fretwork is perfect, the feeling with steel frets is great, and their size is very nice. ("Heavy" = big but not huge.) The Gotoh tremolo bridge feels very solid and nicely thought out with locking of the trem bar and other small improvements to the vintage design. The acoustic sound is great, playability is great. Neck profile is the even slim c, I'd like a thicker one. Flat radius and big'ish frets make it feel modern, almost Ibanez-like. The neck is more comfortable than RG flat necks though. The biggest disappointment now is the tone through amp. Super bright and annoying. Pickups are ML single coils and SSV humbucer. The humbucker tone is good, only a bit too bright, but the single coils are piercing and irritating. This also is easy to cure with new pickups. Lets see what I'll do with this one, I can see myself really liking this after those slight changes.

Th brightness problem is weird, I don't know but aren't the ML pickups just traditional strat single coils, not some weird treble monsters?
 
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Try a 250k ohm volume pot? Might darken it a bit. Although Suhr generally wires his to see 250k on the singles and 500k on the hb.
 
I don't have any experience with Anderson, but I have a Suhr Modern. I've been pretty happy with it. I bought it to be my primary Frankenstrat and it's filled that role well. I had owned it for about three years and began having problems adjusting the truss rod. I sent it to Suhr and they discovered it was in irreparable truss rod defect and gave me a new neck free of charge. Great service.
 
Th brightness problem is weird, I don't know but aren't the ML pickups just traditional strat single coils, not some weird treble monsters?

That is odd. Mine has the ML Classics and are tonally balanced in my opinion. Alder body, maple 22 fret neck/fingerboard, gotoh Floyd and jumbo SS frets.
 
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