What an S Type Guitar Can (Should?) Be; Suhr Pete Thorn Standard HSS
Suhr Pete Thorn Standard HSS in Inca Silver
Welcome folks! I want to thank Andrew at Cosmo Music in Richmond Hill Ontario for doing the work to arrange this very short term availability of this Pete Thorn model Suhr. This review would not have been possible without him.
Introduction to Suhr
I recently wrote about my own, older, Suhr Classic S, and it remains such a fine instrument that when I asked Andrew if there was a current S type, but not out of the Suhr Custom Shop that he could arrange for, he stepped up with this model. As you may be aware, John Suhr was one of the first Master Builders at Fender before forming his own business. His focus has always been on making the best sounding and best playing instruments. Suhr uses the best machinery and the best components for their guitars, and while they have a custom shop, the only difference is that the final work is done by one of their in house master builders specifically. Everything else is consistent, including the machines, the assembly, the parts and the final product. This is fundamentally different from other Custom Shops that use different lines, different components and even different woods. That model creates the impression that the non Custom Shop versions are less worthy. Sadly they often are,
In the case of Suhr however, this is not and has never been the case. I do own a custom built Suhr, that Andrew arranged built for me nearly twenty years ago. I also own the “off the rack” Classic S as well as the amazing Suhr JM. I have never felt that the custom build was substantially better than the Classic S and consistently find the Classic S better than anything coming out of custom shops from other builders. Suhr Guitars are not inexpensive. There are not thousands of them all over the place, and you are not paying substantial sums over the top for logo taxes and phony Artist series or signature guitars.
Mr. Suhr likes two model years of Stratocasters particularly and strives to build guitars to be better than those two years in different models. This guitar is based on his preferred 1963 style.
So one might be inclined to ask, if as far as I am concerned, Suhr Guitars are “better”? By my standards, which no one is obligated to agree with, the answer is 100% yes.
Pete Thorn Standard HSS
Suhr Pete Thorn HSS Inca Silver
The guitar that Andrew arranged for me to review is the Inca Silver version of this model. it is also available in Graphite Metallic, Garnet Red and Ocean Turquoise. I won’t spend a lot of time on the finish, because quite frankly, it is perfect. The image at the top of this article is the version being reviewed.
It is, as shown an HSS model with a single volume, single tone, and a five way switch. There is a vibrato bridge, and the output jack is on the lower rear bout. Strap buttons are located where you would expect them to be on an S style guitar. Let’s get deeper into the specifications.
Specifications
Thornbucker II window pane layout, Garnet Red finish
The body shape is the standard S shape and is made from two pieces of very resonant and still lightweight alder. All the finishes are done in a very nice gloss, not so shiny that it looks like plastic. The neck is roasted maple and has an ebony fingerboard with jumbo stainless steel frets. The back of the neck is done with an oil finish that never gets sticky. The nut is a 1.687” Tusq unit. The neck shape is Pete Thorn’s preferred 60’s Soft V going from 0.830 inches to 0.910 inches and the fretboard radius is compound, starting at 10 inches and ending at 16 inches.
The tuning machines are Suhr’s own locking tuners.
The pickups are Suhr originals, wound in house and well proven. The neck and middle pickups are Suhr V63 models with black covers. they average about 6.4 K resistance and use Alnico V magnets from the same company that supplied Fender. The bridge pickup is a Pete Thorn signature Thornbucker II with a Chrome cover in a window pane layout and black bobbins. I found it to be about 9.3K in resistance and it is built with Alnico II magnets for what Mr. Thorn calls both heat and sweetness. The electronics package includes the patented Suhr SSC II noise management system. The tone pot is a push pull type that allows for true single coil sounds from the bridge Thornbucker II.
The bridge is a Wilkinson WVS 130 with a two point mount and locking saddles.
The guitar comes in a G&G hardshell case.
My First Impressions
The guitar fit me perfectly right out of the case. The neck shape is immediately comfortable and the fret work is incredible. Despite being jumbos, the fretwork doesn’t have that inches of string contact issue that so many jumbo fret implementations have. It’s never about whether the fretwire is jumbo, it’s all about how it is implemented. The frets are completely smooth and the finish work is incredibly fine.
I was very impressed with the Wilkinson bridge and locking saddles. It is a design of superb engineering and to be blunt, just works. The sustaining capabilities are wonderful. Adjustments if needed, (none were, the guitar was perfect right out of the case) are simple and precise. The vibrato arm is a push in type with a micro allen bolt to allow the owner to set a preferred level of arm movement. I did not need to make any adjustment whatsoever to the vibrato system.
The strings installed are Ernie Ball Slinky 10-46. This is a very common and very popular set and good all around, however if this were my guitar, I would be using a smaller gauge of balanced tension Curt Mangan coated strings, either 8.5s or 9s. The S style scale length works well with lighter strings, and my own frequency analysis finds no difference in tonal response.
Strap buttons are often a bugbear for me, and these have nice large mushroom tops that make it easy to put a thick tabbed leather strap from my preferred line of Walker and Williams on, but make getting the strap off a bit of work. That is as things SHOULD be as far as I am concerned.
The tuning machines are super smooth and very precise and are a sufficiently low profile so as not to require string trees. Unless you replace your string trees on your vibrato equipped guitars with Graph Tech trees, they introduce binding when you move the vibrato arm. No such issue here at all.
The weight of the guitar is very comfortable for me and it hands perfectly on the Walker and Williams strap that I am using with it. The jack is firm and snug with no jiggle but it is still easy to remove the cable when you want to. As for all jacks of this type, I recommend a 90 degree plug and if you can get them, Pig Hog 8mm stage cables.
The pearl black pickguard / scratchplate is more beautiful in person than in any photograph. It has great visual depth, and in the case of the review guitar, it provides nice echoes of the Inca Silver paintwork. I also like the black painted headstock. The neck heel is subtly relieved and very comfortable for upper fret access. What Philip McKnight calls the “handshake” is excellent and the balance of the guitar at that point is terrific in my opinion.
Sounds
This is a high end guitar so I tried it through a variety of amplifiers. My first test is always my Tone King Gremlin, because like Mikey, it hates everything. The Suhr sounds great through it in both the regular and the lead channels. In truth, I have never enjoyed the Gremlin’s simplicity as much. It was even better through the Tone King Imperial Mark II and my old PRS Dallas. It also sounded great through the Mesa Boogie Mark V and my Marshall 2550 which has a UA OX connected to avoid shattering the windows if I raise the Master past 1.5 with the gain turned up. I also spent a lot of time playing the guitar through my Strymon studio board and got an incredible classic tone in position 4 using a Strymon Compadre and a Strymon Riverside into the Strymon Iridium in Deluxe Reverb mode with a 1x12 IR.
Suhr Pete Thorn HSS in Graphite Metallic
Example Tones
In this set of audio clips, you will first hear a variety of tones and selections using my Strymon studio board with the Strymon Iridium as the virtual amplifier and IR provider. The final two clips are going to my Tone King Gremlin in first the rhythm channel and then the lead channel. The Gremlin had the volume at 8 o’clock and the tone at 2 o’clock with the Iron Man attenuator engaged two clicks. The clips from the Gremlin were recorded with a Shure SM57 on axis direct into the Clarett+ 8Pre.
#1 - Bridge pickup, split coils, volume ten, tone 5 through a Strymon Compadre clean boost and compressor on, Strymon Sunset both sides on to the Iridium using its Marshall amp and with a Marshall 4x12 IR
#2 - Position 4, neck and middle, volume 8, tone 5 through a Strymon Compadre clean boost and compressor on, Strymon Riverside on to the Iridium using its Deluxe Reverb amp and with a Fender 1x12 IR
#3 - Neck pickup, volume 5, tone 5 through a Strymon Compadre clean boost and compressor on, Strymon Volante reverb only on to the Iridium using its Deluxe Reverb amp and with a Fender 1x12 IR
#4 - Middle pickup volume 10 tone 10 through a Strymon Compadre clean boost and compressor on, Strymon Mobius using the Widening preset, a Strymon Big Sky set for plate reverb on to the Iridium using its AC30 amp with a VOX 2x12
#5 - Position 2, bridge and middle, volume 10 tone 10 into an Old Blood Noise Endeavours Black Fountain oil can delay and into the rhythm channel of the Tone King Gremlin.
#6 - Bridge pickup, volume 10 tone 10 into a Walrus SLO Reverb and into the lead channel of the Tone King Gremlin
It’s my belief that these varied clips begin to give you a sense of the versatility and capability of this instrument in a real world environment. No processing on the clips was done at all in Logic Pro, other than the recording and the subsequent export to MP3.
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.
While I did my recorded examples using my Strymon board and a Strymon Iridium, if you are playing live, I am going to recommend a more traditional amplifier. This is, I think, a high end guitar, and thus I think it warrants a better tube amplifier. I liked it through a variety of tube amplifiers, but if you can have only one, the Mesa Boogie Mark series is a great choice, but I would also suggest trying out the Blackstar St. James amplifiers
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. Coily cables just add a tone of noise.
Gig Bag - This guitar comes with a beautiful G&G hardshell case, but you may find a good gig bag to be a welcome addition to reduce weight. For a guitar like this, I would recommend one of the top line gig bags from MONO. My personal recommendation for the gigging musician is the MONO Vertigo Ultra
Guitar Stand - Hercules make the best stands so don’t skimp. I prefer the stands with the padded lower legs and the locking headstock holder like this one.
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.
Wrapping It Up
I do not need another guitar. I always want another guitar, and I would happily sell one of my many Fender Stratocasters in order to partially fund this guitar. It’s not just better, it’s WAY better, in every way that matters to me. You have to play a Suhr to really get what I am saying and while I think it is unlikely that you would be unhappy, if you are prepared to make this kind of investment head into Cosmo Music and try one out. If that is not possible they do ship Canada wide, and as they are a professional shop, nothing leaves without a detailed inspection. If you are in the United Stated. please contact my friend James Ridings at Sweetwater.
When you get to this level, it’s not about the logo decal, or the price tag, it’s all about the sound and the playability and you will find it EXTREMELY difficult to beat this instrument.
Thanks as always for being here. Please consider supporting the channel on Patreon by clicking this link or the button below. Your support helps me keep the channel going. Cheers and great thanks to all.
