So Awesome, a review of the Suhr Standard Legacy
Yum! Delicious caramel Suhr Standard Legacy
A huge thanks to Andrew and his team at Cosmo Music without whom this review would not exist.
Suhr Standard Legacy Overview
Ok. I expect someone to say “hey, this dude has a bias in favour of Suhr.” Yep. It’s true. I have never picked up and played a Suhr and not found it to be impeccable from the word go. So for those who favour the TLDR tag, it’s perfect, just go buy it. For the rest of you fine folks, stay with me.
The Standard Legacy falls into the Suhr S style framework. It is Strat similar in having three pickups, although the bridge pickup is a humbucker. It is available with both a Floyd Rose bridge / tailpiece or Gotoh 510 Locking unit. My review model has the Gotoh 510. The body is Okoume with a carved maple top and scraped binding with a beautiful gloss finish. The neck is maple with an Indian Rosewood fingerboard and the back is finished in satin. The neck is a slim C. Unlike the other Suhrs that I own, or have played, this guitar comes with active pickups. I am familiar with active pickups on bass and on my .strandberg guitars, but this is the first Suhr that I have played with active pickups. The guitar is available in Suhr Burst, Transparent Caramel, Pelham Blue, Aged Cherry Burst and Black
Specifications
I prefer stainless steel frets and this guitar does not disappoint. The fret wire is neither too wide nor too tall, so a Goldilocks wire that is just right. The fretwork itself is the usual level of immaculate that I have found in every Suhr guitar, ever. The neck is slim but not uncomfortably so, and the 10” to 14” compound radius is so comfortable as to be wonderful.
I am new to the EMG pickups, and arrived with some preconceptions, that were proved incorrect. While metal players may love active EMGs, I now understand why a player like David Gilmour would like them. I know the Gotoh 510 well and it is a super bridge with great sustain and finely adjustable saddles. This guitar comes in a G&G hard shell case
In these days of wood foo foo dust, you may have not heard of Okoume, or be operating under the misconception that only mahogany and ash, with allowances for alder, basswood and limbs being ok. It’s not true. What matter is that the specific pieces of wood used for the body of an electric guitar have superb resonance and sustain. If you can hold a body to your ear and strum the strings open and you can still hear resonance after 35 seconds, you have an incredible guitar body. I tested this guitar with my own ear and found it to be superb. This even with the thick maple cap. It is common that maple caps and to a lesser extent veneers have a debiliatory effect on resonance. That’s one reason folks have said for years that the Les Paul Black Beauty has better resonance than a Cherry Sunburst model. There’s no maple cap.
Okoume comes from the Central African country of Gabon and is the country’s primary lumber export. It is sometimes referred to as Gabon, or Gaboon, but should not be confused with the term Gaboon Mahogany. It is a very hard wood and hard to work due to its high silica content. While this tends to dull tools, the crystalline structure of silica is very good at the transmission of sound. It is a mid priced hardwood, although figured Okoume as found in this instrument get expensive quickly due to scarcity. Okoume is not listed under CITES as rare or endangered.
Initial Impressions and First Play
At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, come on, it’s a Suhr and was perfect right out of the box. Andrew at Cosmo doesn’t like letting a review guitar out of the store that has not gone through their inspection, and I understand that, but I prefer seeing what the state is before the pros at a great shop get to an instrument. In my assessment, this guitar was perfect as it came out of the box.
It has what I would want in a guitar of this type. Stainless steel frets with a very fine string contact point. A solid vibrato bridge that stays in tune. Great body resonance and long natural sustain. Locking tuners, and frictionless nut. A neck whose rear finish never gets sticky. A beautiful finish over great wood selections and tone variety that can be so many things in one instrument.
Regular readers know that I can be a bit obsessive about quality so be thrilled and not disappointed that I did not need/want to do ANYTHING to this guitar.
I do not have a lot of experience with active pickups in guitars, being limited to my exposure to Fishman Fluences in two of my .strandbergs. I mentioned that I entered this with some preconceptions and I was definitely wrong. The clarity and headroom in these EMG pickups is outstanding. Yes, if wound right up, they will push the preamp harder than some passive pickups, but the clarity and, did I mention headroom, is outstanding. They are also dead quiet and even with an overdrive (the Barber FWW BUSS) turned up the noise floor stayed really low.
Example Sounds
Initially I plugged the guitar into my Strymon direct to desk board. It sounded great with all the amp simulations and cabinet IRs in the Strymon Iridium. Each pickup and combination of them has its own unique sound and the resonance of the guitar adds to the harmonic overtones. The EMG pickups have a superb signal to noise ratio and even when cranked, maintain a level of clarity that you don’t find with most passive pickups. They aren’t grindy either, producing wonderful cleans at high volume in the Deluxe Reverb configuration. I was able to get a nice bit of bite out of the AC30 config and the Marshall Plexi config also sounded great to me.
For the recorded samples I decided to direct mic my Tone King Imperial Mark II. I used the ubiquitous Shure SM57 positioned at the grill and midway between the centre of the cone and the rim. The Tone King is a wonderful amp, but it will overdrive in both the Rhythm and Lead channels with the guitar gain up. Obviously the Lead channel overdrives more, and as the circuitry is different punching between channels is not a unity gain scenario. The Imperial Mark II incorporates Tone King’s superb Iron Man attenuator which is necessary for me, because this all tube amp gets loud very quickly. The good kind of loud for musicians, not so much for the neighbours.
So to maintain simple unity gain switching, I also recorded by adding a David Barber Five Watt World BUSS pedal in front of the rhythm channel. This is a pedal designed to deliver Dumble tones, and while I have never played a Dumble myself, it sounds very Dumble like compared to what I have heard on record. You can decide for yourself what you think of the combination, but I love the sound, and I can confirm that because instead of getting to the recording, I played for over an hour just for fun.
Below you will find the listing of the example sounds. All were recorded direct into Logic Pro with the SM57 plugged directly into a Clarett+ 8Pre interface. No processing was done on the initial tracks and the only element in Logic was the use of a TC Electronic Master X HD to master to the MP3.
#1 - Pickups from bridge to neck
#2 - Position 4 V10 T10
#3 - Bridge V10 T10
#4 - Postion 2 V10 T10
#5 - Middle V7 T7
#6 - Neck V10 T5
#7 - As above with Barber FWW BUSS
#8 - Bridge Barber V10 T10
Good To Go Kit
When getting started or even upgrading, there is often more to the success than just the guitar, so I have decided to include a Good To Go recommendation kit. For this guitar, here’s my kit list.
A guitar of this quality deserves a great amplifier. While I love the Suhr Badger, based on my own playing, I would suggest a Tone King, either an Imperial Mk II or a Royalist.
High quality guitar cable - 20ft or less. Good cables last and are quiet. Cheap cables are a horror show. Consult your sales professional for their recommendation but I like cables from Pig Hog, Ernie Ball, Digiflex and D’Addario. Avoid coiled cables, they look cool to some but are noise factories.
Gig Bag - This guitar comes with a terrific hard case, but if a gig bag would be more convenient, get yourself one of the better Mono gig bags.
Guitar Stand - Hercules make the best stands but you can often get a house brand that will hold the guitar when it is not in its case and you are not holding it
Guitar Strap - Every guitar needs a strap and every player, even sitting should use a strap. Gravity always works and a strap will save your guitar at some point. Lots of choices. Avoid fabric straps where the edges are sharp which hurts, Seat belt material is cheap, but the edges can be rough. I recommend real leather that has suede on the inside, which helps rein in instruments that are neck heavy. My favourite straps come from Walker and Williams.
Tuner - No guitar is complete without a tuner that goes with it all the time. Pedal tuners are great, but every player needs an in case tuner, and the Snark tuners are hard to beat. I prefer the cheaper models that take clock batteries as for the difference in price to the rechargeable unit, you can order a sheet of batteries from Amazon, or you may find a card of them in the shop from D’Addario priced very low.
String Changing Tool - The D’Addario tools are great. One tool has a string winder, a string cutter and a bridge pin puller. Every guitarist needs this as every guitarist should learn to change his or her own strings. It’s not hard, and that quality guitar shop might even offer a free session on how to do string changes efficiently that you can attend live. Also, there will be about a zillion YouTube videos on the subject.
Wrap Up
I love this guitar. It’s that simple. There is nothing in it or on it that I would change. If I was in a suitable financial state, I would buy one. Do I need it? Of course not. Do I want it? Absolutely. You can get one yourself by clicking this link to Cosmo Music if you are in Canada. The MAP here in Canada is $4899. This is a limited edition build and once they are gone, they are gone. You will not find Suhr instruments all over the place as their dealer network is well managed.
I have never found a Suhr that did not please. No exception this time. Please consider becoming a channel member and supporting me on Patreon. Do send in questions or comments, I read and respond to all. For That Guitar Lover, I’m Ross Chevalier. I wish you all the best and look forward to sharing with you again soon.
