so awhile back I was visiting the Suhr factory, and Ed handed me a Modern, and asked me what I thought- I played it for a few minutes, and it was exceptional, felt like a typical Suhr guitar to me. Then he explained it was a sample, one of the protos for what's become the Rasmus line....
Well, first off, I was surprised- I had many of the same thoughts/questions/concerns as many of you. But I was holding this guitar, and it was essentially flawless. I mean, one of my concerns was actually how would this line affect sales of the regular Suhrs, because the guitar felt and played and looked so damn good. Flawless finish, perfect frets (makes sense, since the Suhr guys had done the whole setup). Obviously tight tolerances.
So we talked for a long while, and I brought up many things like what had happened to the Charvel/Jackson and Kramer lines in the 80's, etc. And Ed basically answered all of my questions, I didn't realize just how much experience and background he has dealing with Asian guitar factories, he really knows his stuff. He explained to me that with many of these companies in the 80's and 90's it was just about bottom line and expanding as fast as possible, and that they'd be raking in cash and living high on the hog, and maybe 1000 guitars would show up on the dock from Asia and the quality would be sub par, and that the bean counters would just send em out, instead of returning them. The Suhr guys clearly want nothing to do with that sort of b.s.- I don't know anyone more concerned with quality than John- so trust me he gets it, there's really no way he'd put his name on something if it wasn't up to snuff. Like, he wouldn't be able to sleep at night anymore. He just wouldn't do it. So whatever Ed has sorted out as far as a factory goes, I'll tell you, this guitar I played felt just exceptional.
As far as demographic, from what Ed told me they are aiming for the dudes that would normally be buying the Ibanez, the Schecter, the guys on the Petrucci forum that really would love a Suhr but can't (til now) afford it. Young guys or guys on a budget playing modern rock, metal, shred, etc.- hence the H-S-S and H-S-H pickup layouts, floyds, Modern body shape etc.
So that's my take on it. Pick one up and play it before you worry too much about anything else- honestly, Ed handed me this guitar, I didn't know, literally had no idea I wasn't playing a US made Modern when I played it, until he told me- so I guess that in of itself is an endorsement.
