The story behind this new and latest Guthrie Signature is that during our clinic tours when Guthrie gets to try out and demo lots of different Suhr guitars, he would always comment about how nice certain guitars are and I noticed a pattern. He always seemed to like either Custom guitars with Basswood/Maple body with Maple neck or the Pro Series S4. He wouldn't know what woods these guitars had as he'd just pick 'em up and play 'em but I noticed that this combination would always float his boat. Of course, this wood combination is also what John refers to as the "Holy Grail".
He also loved virtually every Antique guitar he'd get his hands on and commented about how they really felt and sounded like good old vintage guitars but with much better playability. This is all something I've noticed over the past couple of years doing clinics with him. Another comment he had made about his two Mahogany Signature guitars (as well as the Mahogany body/neck Standard he got back in '05) is that the necks weren't quite as stable as the Maple neck guitars he had. He understood that Mahogany is just not as dense and stable as Maple and just accepted that he'd have to make truss rod adjustments whenever he ended up in a new city with a sudden change in climate conditions.
So with these things in mind, I proposed the specs of this guitar to him and he was immediately intrigued. This guitar just sounds HUGE with this wood combination, the thin and aged nitro-cellulose lacquer finish by J Black, the Roasted Maple neck, and the 510 bridge 2-post with the vintage-style bent saddles. Everyone here was struck by how great it sounded acoustically. Again, it's another example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Amazing guitar. Guthrie is going to love this one and it will be the perfect complement to his other Mahogany Signature guitars.
You can order the Antique body with the color of your choice with different specs if you'd like. This model doesn't mean that you'd have to order it to get the features of this particular guitar. Artists' signature model guitars are just Custom guitars spec'd out and built for artists like anyone else. I think they serve more as reference points to give you guys some ideas about spec'ing out your own Custom guitars. That being said, this particular combination of features is really hip and, ultimately, what matters is how it sounds and plays and this guitar really delivers on that end. _________________ Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
Wow! That looks incredible. The neck and fretboard compliments the tobacco very nicely.
I've always wondered this... but does Guthrie ever have problems using the blower switch? Every time I see him do a demo of it, he'll play a clean, chordal groove, then seem like he needs to carefully aim to hit the blower switch and play lead. Likewise, he'll have to aim after play lead to play chords again.
Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2783 Location: Chino, CA
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:40 am Post subject:
psofos wrote:
This is so beautiful! so i can order one guitar with this specs or it will be a production model? i cant wait to see guthrie playing one of these!
You can order this GG Signature Antique Modern or you can order a Custom with similar specs. The only thing is that the color is restricted to the vintage-style colors. _________________ Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2783 Location: Chino, CA
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:43 am Post subject:
Well, the eagle has landed in the master's hands and he should have just completed his first Bassment gig in Chelmsford with this guitar and the Badger 30. He'll provide a more thorough post-gig review but here are some of his initial comments about his new Antique Modern:
"This is almost certainly the nicest Suhr I've ever encountered. I'm inclined to think that perhaps you guys should stop everything else you're doing and just make loads of these things
The stability of that roasted maple is pretty amazing - when I first took it out of the gig bag, the guitar was not only utterly playable but also perfectly in tune. Nice! With the Tremol-No engaged, the neck passed with flying colours in both of my little stability tests - i.e...
1) the orientation of the guitar (pickups facing the floor vs pickups facing the ceiling) didn't seem to affect the tuning in any way, and
2) I found that doing that Slidey Boy Drop-B thing only required me to retune the low E - the other five strings seemed unaffected by the change in overall tension, and consequently didn't need any fine-tuning tweaks. Having spent most of my life using mahogany necks, this is a hitherto unknown luxury...
I'm very curious to find out how well the neck on this guitar will cope with air travel and stage lighting - I have a sneaking suspicion that it will prove to be surprisingly resilient.
Acoustically, the guitar rings for days - and bringing out the higher harmonics on each string has never been easier. In an odd way, the acoustic tone reminded me slightly of the Classic T - which I guess can only serve to confirm your clinic mantra that the neck really does contribute 50% of the overall sound!
Oh, and it looks great, too. It's sufficiently shiny that I'm still being rather careful not to knock it or scratch it in any way - but when it does sustain its first minor cosmetic injury whilst in my custody (and it's inevitable, I guess...) I certainly won't feel quite as guilty as I did when the original GG suffered its first "ding". Also, I know I've said this before, but... that old, environmentally unfriendly lacquer really does make a tonal difference!
So... that's probably enough rambling for one installment. Enormous thanks to your good self and all the Suhr folks for sending that stuff over - and Much Respect to anyone who was in any way involved with the construction of that guitar: it really did work out even better than we had anticipated, didn't it? " _________________ Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
Joined: 06 Jan 2010 Posts: 70 Location: st annes lancashire
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 8:33 pm Post subject:
got to hear the new gg debut on my 1st fellowship show, that thing rings like a bell, kinda cool to hear guthrie through a suhr amp too, its a lot brighter than my gg bolt on, but we all know guthries gonna sound good playing a popsical stick, but that guitar sure did snarl beautifully. and was lovely and crisp with the cleans, at no point was it harsh.
Personally, that's the feature I always want when I purchase a guitar. I think it definitely adds to the tone and resonance of the guitar, a bit more open...less compressed. Plus, it just looks much cooler to me....how it ages over time. I can't stand it when a guitar is too shiny and mirror-like.
I hope the Music Zoo gets one of these so I can check it out.
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