Is he a master guitar builder or an amp guru?
Apparently the two aren’t mutually exclusive because his latest endeavor, Suhr Guitars, has melded both passions successfully enough to celebrate its 10th anniversary. Despite the traditional looking designs from the company he and Steve Smith founded, John rails against the concepts of soul and mojo that tend to permeate guitar making. To John, the “mojo” that a particularly nice ’56 Strat exudes is quantifiable, and therefore repeatable. By embracing modern building methods and a little bit of science, his instruments have that consistent feel, ensuring that each plays and sounds as good as the next. Ironically, this approach gives each guitar with the Suhr logo on the headstock tons of what most players immediately identify as great feel and soul – more commonly referred to as mojo. As further proof of John’s singular vision, he left a successful gig building the high-profile Pensa-Suhr instruments at Rudy’s Music Stop to design and build preamps and amps with Bob Bradshaw, a move m
