Ever make your own guitar?

[David King]

Renegade

[husky]

Well it's not like there's a web page dedicated to covering Suhrs Chinese products or bashing Suhr for doing it. I happen to know because I was inside the Chinese MFG/amp/guitar connection for a short time. But you can look around and find several references. Many of their products expressly indicate "made in China" while others don't. All the stuff you might expect, like gig bags and amp covers, etc. is made in China. But that sort of thing always is now. Suhr recently introduced a guitar aiming for a lower price point for players that want a Suhr guitar that is made in China. And even though much of the assembly occurs in the USA, I have reason to believe that most of the speaker cabinets, circuit boards and perhaps even stuffed chassis arrive at their factory as "parts" from China. I say this because the Chinese factories aren't secretive about who they do work for. Especially when they want your business. I do think that amp transformers and their entire pickup line is made in the USA. Even the pickups that go into their Chinese guitars.

You are way off base here.

The gig bags and misc stuff like a few pieces of hardware sure, everyone does that.
The Chinese Rasmus line of guitars (clearly marked and were "Rasmus" not "Suhr") guitars we axed almost 2 years ago when we also changed our sales and marketing team. That was the only product we had made in China. We decided to do it all in house on the less expensive line. We don't use China for anything else.

Unstuffed raw PCBs are made in CA. All amps are stuffed or handwired built and tested 100% in our factory in CA. All guitars built from lumber and painted in our factory except for some lacquer jobs done by Jblack due to AQMD limitations. All pickups made in our factory, parts laser cut on our lasers, we even uses American magnets in our pickups at a cost of 15x what the Chinese magnets would cost. One of the largest guitar manufacturers in the world is using Chinese magnets now despite being a US company. All speaker cabinets and head shells are made in CA, i do like the Chinese Celestions though. All pedals are designed and made in our shop except for some surface mount stuffing work jobbed out to a stuffing company in CA. That is only for a few board though on the pedals only, pedal boxes are machined out of billet in Lake Elsinore, anodized in CA and laser etched on our very own lasers in house.

We even do all website, graphics and recordings, pictures all in house. I'd be happy to back it all up with pictures but with a little research you can see for yourself.

The Badgers are still selling very very well;-)

I'm really against outsourcing anything I don't absolutely have to. I like making everything in house. I have major investments in machinery and technology. We have over 80 employees now.

I understand your assumptions though since I know there are plenty of other amp builders including boutique high end companies outsourcing to China or are about to. It just isn't the way I like to do things though and avoid it whenever possible even if it makes me uncompetitive. I am a "lets do it ourselves" kind of guy.

I like offering American jobs and hate the high reject percentages of letting anyone else touch my product. The new factory is 27,000 sq ft state of the art and we are already growing out of it.

I know your post was well intentioned but dangerously misleading, we have never done amp work off the premises. We use the same cabinet maker many do and he is 100% in CA. Everything else we do. Cabinets are all built to my specs. I don't think there are many US guitar/amp companies keeping the amount of work inside the premises and in the USA as we do.

If you guys ever have any questions just email me, i dont bullshit. It is a pain to find this stuff in the haystack of the internet and then respond to it after it has been posted and damage is done.
Thanks
John Suhr

[Chuck H]

Thank you for restoring my faith in ideologies. I wish it applied to our culture on a larger scale. You might be interested to know that at least one Chinese MFG claims to make amp related products for Suhr. It could have been covers for all I know, but they were offering to contract amps for the company I was working with. The whole China marketing thing gets pretty shady from what I've seen. I'm more than happy to be wrong on this one. I read somewhere that the 2xel84 Badger was discontinued?!? I hope that's not true. . I guess as some measure of recompense I should, at the very least, increase the amount of Suhr products I own! Not a problem. You offer so many good ones! Maybe a gig bag Just kidding. I'm actually interested in the SSC right now. Kudos to you! And thank you again.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I am a "lets do it ourselves" kind of guy.

I like offering American jobs and hate the high reject percentages of letting anyone else touch my product. The new factory is 27,000 sq ft state of the art and we are already growing out of it.

I know your post was well intentioned but dangerously misleading, we have never done amp work off the premises. We use the same cabinet maker many do and he is 100% in CA. Everything else we do. Cabinets are all built to my specs. I don't think there are many US guitar/amp companies keeping the amount of work inside the premises and in the USA as we do.

If you guys ever have any questions just email me, i dont bullshit. It is a pain to find this stuff in the haystack of the internet and then respond to it after it has been posted and damage is done.
Thanks
John Suhr

Was thinking of pinging you about what has turned out to be dezo = disinformation.

I was hoping you'd set us straight, also suspected the "china" connection was ginned up out of proportion to reality. Heck I even added 10,000 sq ft to your facility (maybe predicting future expansion ? ? ?).

Good to hear the Badger's still in production. Just to make sure, Jim Kelley's there too, right?

Yes it's a hassle to ride the internet. There are even companies who do this now on behalf of their subscribers. "Reputation defenders." What a wacky modern world it is.

I'll go back to my first post about it. "Get a Suhr guitar in your hands. Makes you want to play." The quality shines through. Comes right from the top, that's you John!

All the best, LG.

[husky]

Thank you for restoring my faith in ideologies. I wish it applied to our culture on a larger scale. You might be interested to know that at least one Chinese MFG claims to make amp related products for Suhr. It could have been covers for all I know, but they were offering to contract amps for the company I was working with. The whole China marketing thing gets pretty shady from what I've seen. I'm more than happy to be wrong on this one. I read somewhere that the 2xel84 Badger was discontinued?!? I hope that's not true. . I guess as some measure of recompense I should, at the very least, increase the amount of Suhr products I own! Not a problem. You offer so many good ones! Maybe a gig bag Just kidding. I'm actually interested in the SSC right now. Kudos to you! And thank you again.

Hey Chuck

It is funny the misinformation I have run in to. I used to think when heard something there must be some shred of truth to the story. After experiencing it myself I know that isn't necessarily the case. My first experience was hearing I died from Jeff Becks tech. I actually read that they couldn't get anymore of the pickups I made for him while at Fender because I died ! I didn't even know I was sick.

The only thing anyone could possibly claim on the amplifiers is the cloth cover or maybe knobs.
If anyone is claiming anything else I'd love to give them a piece of my mind so feel free to email me
John at Suhr.com

Yes of course we still make all the Badgers and there will be many more to come.
We have been hiring left and right when my old buddies down the road are letting great people go.
In fact we just had a visits from our congressman last week thanking us for bringing new jobs to Lake Elsinore and for creating jobs in Southern CA.
I'm a naturalized American citizen born in Copenhagen who knows this is the best country in the world !

Thanks!
JS

[husky]

Was thinking of pinging you about what has turned out to be dezo = disinformation.

I was hoping you'd set us straight, also suspected the "china" connection was ginned up out of proportion to reality. Heck I even added 10,000 sq ft to your facility (maybe predicting future expansion ? ? ?).

Good to hear the Badger's still in production. Just to make sure, Jim Kelley's there too, right?

Yes it's a hassle to ride the internet. There are even companies who do this now on behalf of their subscribers. "Reputation defenders." What a wacky modern world it is.

I'll go back to my first post about it. "Get a Suhr guitar in your hands. Makes you want to play." The quality shines through. Comes right from the top, that's you John!

All the best, LG.

Yes Jim Kelley is an extremely smart knowledgeable man who works with me daily . When Jim speaks I listen and it is an honor to have him on our staff. We make his glorious amps without compromise.
10,000 extra? I'd love to find 50,000 extra across the street. ;-)
Thanks

PS I love what you guys do and discuss here, that thirst for knowledge and a better mousetrap is what drives me to happily go to work.

[Leo_Gnardo]

I'd love to find 50,000 extra across the street. ;-)

You'll be needing it soon, the way things are going.

If you read what I just sent to Terry on PM, you'd be sending me a cake right now and I don't mean a cow pie.

Didn't know you started out in Denmark, well ya learn something new every day. Got me thinkin' Bruel & Kjaer... yeh, top quality. Dedication to precision. Peter Jensen - practicality and good tone. Now we know where some of it comes from... Darn glad you're here John!

PS I love what you guys do and discuss here, that thirst for knowledge and a better mousetrap is what drives me to happily go to work.

Don't ever lose it & I know you won't. All the best, LG.

[David Schwab]

My first experience was hearing I died from Jeff Becks tech.

I think I remember that! Hey John, you know Nelson Cantillo? I play in a band with him. I also play with Doug Bryan, who just loves your pickups.

[David King]

John,

Just wanted to say welcome. It's not every day we gain an actual pickup maker.

[Durrant Pickups]

while you are on here id like to share one of my favourite pieces of music which happens to be on one of your guitars

[big_teee]

All this High Fiving, is making me want to Barf!
Just Kidding!

[John_H]

Ever make your own guitar?

Wow, this thread really derailed. lol, It even sucked John Suhr in.


I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much free time to play around in the shop, but did get a little accomplished last night, and today.

The neck's pretty far along, and the body is chambered. It's a one piece body with interesting grain, so I chambered it from the backside.

I'm not sure what direction I'll go from here. I've got a few ideas, nothing solid.



This is how I work the neck joint so that I can use a vintage style adjuster, and still have the neck tenon under the pickup mortise.

[Chuck H]

Wow, this thread really derailed. lol, It even sucked John Suhr in.

My bad.

so I chambered it from the backside.

I'm not sure what direction I'll go from here. I've got a few ideas, nothing solid.

No pun intended.

Glad to see some topic related content. I'm not 100% on this, but isn't this how a lot of Ric's were made? A maple finger board and a chambered body should make for a real pretty tone machine.

[John_H]

I'm not 100% on this, but isn't this how a lot of Ric's were made?

It looks like you're right.

A maple finger board and a chambered body should make for a real pretty tone machine.

Thanks Chuck. I'm hoping so.

[David Schwab]

...but isn't this how a lot of Ric's were made?

I can never help but think what a remarkable waste of wood that is!