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Suhr Bass Club
- Thread starter was3funk
- Start date
My guess is no. Graphite rods are not mentioned anywhere is the product description. The neck is rock solid though and response is even across the fret board.
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,081
- 9,805
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
Hey guys, I figured I'd put this here. I'm selling this Suhr custom shop jazz, if anyone is interested. Shoot me a PM.
https://www.talkbass.com/classifieds/suhr-custom-shop-jazz-ash-maple-trans-blue.1660516/
https://www.talkbass.com/classifieds/suhr-custom-shop-jazz-ash-maple-trans-blue.1660516/
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,081
- 9,805
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
Cant compare it to a passive Suhr since the blue one I had was active from the get go, but i recently got a Stenback and its too good to even put into words. The Suhr was very, very nice though. The Stenback is just a a completely diferent animal. I wouldnt even know where to start, in comparing it to anything.
Since there's no chance I'll ever play a Stenback, I'll have to hope Suhr ends my GAS
.
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,081
- 9,805
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
I hear that. I'm hesitant to comment about the modern day passive suhrs, because mine was a custom one made 15 years ago and I know how much a shops output can change or evolve in that amount of time. That being said, the blue one was very nice in so many ways.
I bought my Suhr Classic J Bass within the past year and it is an excellent instrument. At $3,400 the Suhr is not terribly expensive depending on your view point. I can find no faults with the sound or the build. It is the best passive bass that I own and I would not want it to have active electronics to get in the path of the passive sound. I guess you could call that an endorsement for Suhr. j
Hi all, Suhr bass question here.
A few years ago I changed the pickups in my Suhr active J from standard Suhr classic single-coils to Suhr Humphreys because of a bad experience recording in a studio where I was getting really bad single-coil hum. They sound great, but the signal level is definitely quieter than my other basses, even with a fresh battery. Looking at the pickups, I realise that the magnets are very poorly aligned with the strings:
The photo above has been taken from about 2m away and then zoomed in, so that perspective doesn't distort so much. You can see from the photo that the magnets are distributed too widely. Admittedly, the bridge is upgraded, but there is no deviation from the norms of what you would expect in terms of string spacing. The strings are 19.3mm apart at the bridge, and 18.3mm apart over the pickup, which is about right for a classic style 4-string instrument.
The measurement from the middle of the E-string polepieces pair to the G-string polepieces pair is 60mm, meaning a 20mm spacing over the pickup, which would require the instrument to have an even wider 21mm string spacing at the bridge in order to line up correctly.
Anyone else have this issue? Can anyone else measure their Suhr (especially if they have Humphreys) and tell me if theirs if the same?
A few years ago I changed the pickups in my Suhr active J from standard Suhr classic single-coils to Suhr Humphreys because of a bad experience recording in a studio where I was getting really bad single-coil hum. They sound great, but the signal level is definitely quieter than my other basses, even with a fresh battery. Looking at the pickups, I realise that the magnets are very poorly aligned with the strings:
The photo above has been taken from about 2m away and then zoomed in, so that perspective doesn't distort so much. You can see from the photo that the magnets are distributed too widely. Admittedly, the bridge is upgraded, but there is no deviation from the norms of what you would expect in terms of string spacing. The strings are 19.3mm apart at the bridge, and 18.3mm apart over the pickup, which is about right for a classic style 4-string instrument.
The measurement from the middle of the E-string polepieces pair to the G-string polepieces pair is 60mm, meaning a 20mm spacing over the pickup, which would require the instrument to have an even wider 21mm string spacing at the bridge in order to line up correctly.
Anyone else have this issue? Can anyone else measure their Suhr (especially if they have Humphreys) and tell me if theirs if the same?
A slight mis-alignment is normal with Fenders (or in this case, a Fender shaped object). The general consensus is that the mis-allignment doesn't matter, so long as its still over the magnet. That said, I've had one experience with a poorly aligned E that lost output when plucked (P pickup).
The stock threaded saddle bridge lets you move the strings laterally to get better alignment. I have stock passive Js and they're aligned at 21mm.
Looking at your picture, it looks like you have a 19mm spacing?
The stock threaded saddle bridge lets you move the strings laterally to get better alignment. I have stock passive Js and they're aligned at 21mm.
Looking at your picture, it looks like you have a 19mm spacing?
Normal and doesn't really affect sound or end results - it's reasonable to postulate that thousands of hit records were done with basses that didn't have perfectly aligned strings over their pickup's polepieces.
That said, you do expect a premium boutique instrument to have perfect measurements and alignments. This can get into a gray area because there are certain built-in imperfections on Fender style instruments. Some boutique J-style instruments do have perfect alignment. If you look at a Metro or NYC Sadowsky, you'll notice pretty much perfect to string polepiece alignment. This is because Sadowskys come with non-adjustable 20 mm spacing bridges. Early ones are an exception, but once Roger arrived at his proprietary bridge, it's been 20 mm for years.
My my first Sadowsky (purchased in 1990) came with an adjustable Schaller Bridge set to 19 mm spacing, which is the same as Fenders. I got used to that spacing early on and when Sadowsky moved the 20 mm spacing bridge I didn't like them. I since then purchased several other Sadowskys and I replaced the the 20 mm bridges with 19 mm bridges. 19 mm bridges are a special request item you can get from Sadowsky.
Ultimately, I compromised the perfect string/polepiece line-up concern for the feel that I was used to for my entire playing career. I can confidently assure anybody that no one could tell any difference between 20mm or 19mm either live or on record, even if the string spacing over the pole pieces is "off. It's just simply never been an issue.
I'm reasonably sure if a 20 mm bridge was used on a Suhr, it would line up the strings over the pole pieces well. My main player is a Suhr P these days and doesn't have absolutely perfect string/polepiece lineup, but it's not a huge concern.
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It took me two years but I'm finally playing my Suhr custom. What a treat.
I would love to try one, but as I play 5ers pretty exclusively these days, I don't see this happening. I don't think I have ever seen a Suhr 5. string.
What a bass. The engineer was stunned at how good it sounded.
I would be curious to know. I have a Suhr Classic J Bass. It just sings. There is a world of difference between the Suhr and the American Fender Professional II that I have. I even put Lindy Fralin pickups in the Fender that greatly improved the sound but the Suhr still beats it for clarity and resonance. The price of the Suhr was a reasonable $3,700 I believe.
Same. It's just the best bass I've ever played. Much better than my American Fender Jazz Performer which is pretty good in its own right.
I have three Suhr's but have owned five. The three I have, sound better than the one that had stainless steel frets. The only jazz bass i have that I like more is my Nordy vj4 but hard to find anymore.
On the Suhr's it is just a preference thing, I have had a few basses with SS frets and I don't like them.
Also, I only had one passive Suhr and it was a beauty but the frets...I traded it for something else.
Here is my favorite.
On the Suhr's it is just a preference thing, I have had a few basses with SS frets and I don't like them.
Also, I only had one passive Suhr and it was a beauty but the frets...I traded it for something else.
Here is my favorite.
Here is an old thread i started in 2009 I think:
Played a few Suhr P basses recently at a local DFW music store and they are great! Every bit as good as their J basses
