New Suhr Bass Orders!!

[scd]

Oh. My. Goodness.

[RocketMusic]

Boom!! 14 months after setting it up, my Suhr pipeline is finally starting to kick in. LOL. Here's the first of 7-8 Suhrs that will be arriving in coming months!!

And just FYI - the huge delay here was mostly my own doing. Suhr is currently taking new orders for June 2013 production (which would mean delivery in July 2013 if all goes smoothly). Let me know if you'd like to get a custom Suhr order going, we do them all day every day (for guitars, anyway).

Suhr Classic J (Trans Blue)

[VroomVroom]

That thing is gorgeous! Do my eyes deceive, or is that 70's spacing?

[Darkstrike]

By heck, that is tasty.

[LilRay]

MMMMMM! BLUUUUEEEE!



God Bless, Ray

[RocketMusic]

Originally Posted by VroomVroom

That thing is gorgeous! Do my eyes deceive, or is that 70's spacing?

I should probably know the answer to that question...

I didn't specify one way or the other, so I'll inquire with my guy at Suhr and report back.

[RocketMusic]

Aw, heck, I've got a tape measure. I get 4" from one side of the neck pickup to the same side of the bridge pickup (i.e. measuring from the bridge side of each pickup). I believe that means 70's spacing it is?

[RocketMusic]

With my youngest son getting into cello this year, I've been reading more and more classical music as we work on it together. It's really simple stuff so far, but it's great exercise for me and my budding reading skills. With that in mind, here's a quick recording I just did using the new, blue Suhr Classic J.

"Ode To Joy" (Beethoven)

The recording is silly, but the bass sounds friggin' righteous!! The melody is all bridge pickup, and the bass line is both pickups blended equally. Both tracks were recorded direct though my A-Designs REDDI tube DI.

[VroomVroom]

Greg, that made my morning.....thanks!

Gotta' be 70's, right? This...



versus this...



Man....both of those are gorgeous. But the different bridge designs always throw me off. The bridge pickup on the blue bass does look closer (vertically) to that first EQ knob. Anyway...sorry for the tangent.

[RocketMusic]

Originally Posted by VroomVroom

Greg, that made my morning.....thanks!

Gotta' be 70's, right? This...



versus this...



Man....both of those are gorgeous. But the different bridge designs always throw me off. The bridge pickup on the blue bass does look closer (vertically) to that first EQ knob. Anyway...sorry for the tangent.

Thanks, Jerry! That clip was fun to do (and fast).

I broke out a tape measure and measured the spacing last night. It is indeed 4 inches, which is 70's...

Now the real question is why did they do 60's on one and 70's on the other? Not that I mind, variety is the spice of life. But if someone orders one in the future with a specific spacing in mind, I guess we'll need to specify that. Good to know.

[dDaddybass]

Intersting tidbit, the whole reason for moving the bridge pickup was so it would be hidden by the ashtray. Would that 1/4" make an audible difference?

[RocketMusic]

Originally Posted by dDaddybass

Intersting tidbit, the whole reason for moving the bridge pickup was so it would be hidden by the ashtray. Would that 1/4" make an audible difference?

It does indeed!

That said, I wouldn't get too hung up about it, especially with basses from that time period. Fender wasn't exactly precise with the pickup placement because the pickups slots were cut by hand (meaning they used a jig that was placed by hand). It wasn't like CNC accuracy we have today where the pickups can theoretically be in exactly the same spot on every bass they make.

[dDaddybass]

That brings up an interesting question (not to derail the thread). Where do you personally anchor your thumb while playing a 4 string? If you're like me, it's either the bridge or neck pickup. If that's the case, then the position of the bridge pickup would dictate the position of the fingers plucking the strings. Then the true test would be to compare the two basses while playing only in the neck pickup position, would it not?

[RocketMusic]

Yep, the physical placement of the thumb has something to do with it, as does the physics of a vibrating string, as well as which particular note you're playing (which determines where the nodes of the standing wave on the string happen). It's definitely a complex thing going on.

[KJung]

Originally Posted by dDaddybass

Intersting tidbit, the whole reason for moving the bridge pickup was so it would be hidden by the ashtray. Would that 1/4" make an audible difference?

It does, but not as much as many think, since there is typically a confound between the 60's and 70's pickup position and the wood the basses are made of (with the vast majority of 60's position J's being alder/RW, and the vast majority of 70's position J's being ash/maple).

Sadowsky is a brand that uses 60's position as the default in all their J models (ash/maple and RW/Alder... except for the 70's inspired Metro UV model). Some feel that is the 'sweet spot', since you get the slightly fatter lower midrange of moving the bridge pickup a bit closer to the neck), but still that punch and brightness of the ash/maple build.

Pretty subtle though, when you control for everything else. The problem is, everything else is never controlled for.

Also, regarding right hand (plucking) position on a 4 string using the pickup as a thumb anchor, of course, when you have your thumb on the neck pickup, the bridge pickup position has not impact on hand position. When you move back toward the bridge, the very small 1/4" distance is very easy to compensate for (i.e., you can pluck in exactly the same position on either spec).

IMO and a lot of IME on this one

[rastap]

Thanks Greg. This bass is 'da bomb!

[RocketMusic]

Nice, Paul! Surprise, it's done!

I love the neck, that is absolutely beautiful!

[RocketMusic]

So, Paul. Now that the honeymoon phase is ending - are ya still in love?!? I'm sure you are...

And, mmmmmmmm.... fresh Suhr pron.

John Suhr Classic J (3 Tone Burst)

[rastap]

Originally Posted by RocketMusic

So, Paul. Now that the honeymoon phase is ending - are ya still in love?!? I'm sure you are...

And, mmmmmmmm.... fresh Suhr pron.

John Suhr Classic J (3 Tone Burst)

Madly in love. Put some hi beams on it. Unbelievable! When they come out with their five string, I'll be giving you a call. They may come out with P as well. One can dream.

When I was at the factory party I saw a five string neck. Kinda looked like a Pensa five string neck as it had the tuning peg holes all in a row.

Very snappy bass. It's just unbelievable and the workmanship is impeccable. The setup was flawless. I'm so glad I got the SS FRETS.

These guys know what they're doing. I'd love to see them do a bass based on their modern pro guitar model. They need to give me a job in product development. I'll work for bass prototypes.

[RocketMusic]

Suhr just shipped us another bass today! This one is an Alder/RW J-bass in Olympic White. It's got John's 2-band active EQ in it (treble boost & cut, bass boost only).

The bass should arrive in about a week!

Suhr Classic J (Olympic White)