Anyone fancy a bargain Suhr?

[Philly Q]

http://www.rasmusguitars.com/

You probably all know about this already, but I stumbled on it yesterday.  Basically it's a "budget" (relatively speaking) range designed by John Suhr and built somewhere mysterious in the far east.

(Rather a strange website they've come up with!)

[Frank]

Well they're a nice shape!

The bizarre sideways-scrolling website seems to omit a few details like which country they're actually made in, we all know that "assembled in the USA" means nothing at all if they're just bolting together badly-hewn lumps of plywood.

Some googling reveals they're made in China ... not sure I'd shell out for a Chinese Suhr copy.

[MrBump]

Bizarre website!!!

[Dazza1004]

the name just makes me think about the singer from the (very shitee) band rasmus, which is not a good thing !!!

I'm sure they are great guitars but the name puts me off, and before you all critise me for being too focused on things that don't really matter, would you play a guitar with Hitler written on the headstock ?

[Philly Q]

The bizarre sideways-scrolling website seems to omit a few details like which country they're actually made in

Yeah, they've gone to the trouble of writing a long paragraph about how Ed Yoon scoured the factories of the far east like the guitar world's answer to the Man from Del Monte.... then they bottle out of saying which factory he actually chose.  :?

Very odd, and suggests they're ready to shift production somewhere cheaper if the profit margins don't work.

And yeah, the name is an odd choice even though they explain where it came from.  I wonder if Suhr has ever heard of the popular Finnish "rockers"?

[Jonny]

I don't like sideways scrolling, it's not me. :P

And $1332? They look bog standard. At least add a veneer if you want to hog the massive profit margin that he'll get. And "discriminating customers" sounds wrong.

[Afghan Dave]

He makes a bigger margin on those than the handbuilt puts no effort into design and we are supposed to be impressed.

I'd much rather buy a Squire Classic Vibe. :x

[horsehead]

I looked & the website & liked the idea of a cheaper Suhr, then looked at the price...WOOWZA!

[Sifu Ben]

While they have Chinese manufacture, they've got the same pickups and hardware as the USA Suhrs, and are Plek'd and they are QC'd at the Suhr factory (which are the 2 factors most effecting the perceived quality of a guitar).
$1300 does seem a lot, but then MSRP on US guitars never remotely resembles what they actually cost. $950-$1000 is a more probable figure (based on how MSRP and MAP usually work), and if they play like a Suhr, and sound like a Suhr, which on paper they should, that could be quite a deal.

[Sifu Ben]

Although, for £850ish these look pretty sweet, and they're handmade
http://www.guitarandpickup.com/index.php?lay=show&ac=photo_view&event_id=7053

[maverickf1jockey]

Those 'budget' Suhr guitars definitely don't deserve that kind of price point. You could probably get hold of a fender custom shop for that kind of money (possibly not straight from the factory but it would probably be on par with a Suhr as at a certain point the only real difference in quality is in the fit and finish.), hell you could even get a custom build (or something like a Blackmachine B6) for not much more.
That is ludicrous money for a guitar manufactured in the East.

[Sifu Ben]

Those 'budget' Suhr guitars definitely don't deserve that kind of price point. You could probably get hold of a fender custom shop for that kind of money (possibly not straight from the factory but it would probably be on par with a Suhr as at a certain point the only real difference in quality is in the fit and finish.), hell you could even get a custom build (or something like a Blackmachine B6) for not much more.
That is ludicrous money for a guitar manufactured in the East.

Maybe you should do a search on Musiciansfriend and see what $1300 actually gets you. Mostly USA standard strats, lower end Gibsons, and upper end Korean and mid point Japanese models, as well as the Chinese made Deans (the Razorback models). You can get a Blackmachine for not much more than £830? Where? Also, as said before, MSRP is nowhere near what you actually pay.

[Sifu Ben]

Just to illustrate my point, this Epiphone has an MSRP of $1332!
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Les-Paul-Tribute-Electric-Guitar?sku=621058

[maverickf1jockey]

I was more talking about spending an extra couple of hundred to get something nicer.

Point taken actually; the exchange rate and price lists aren't quite as they were last time I looked, which was a couple of years ago (I did want to take a look at the current price lists but my connection dropped.).
Also with the internet market becoming more and more important the price lists are becoming more or less meaningless as a way of comparing prices.

But I do still think that you could do better than get one of them by buying a Japanese manufactured guitar (By the East I wasn't really referring to OES companies like Fuji-Gen or Tokai that manufacture extremely good instruments at prices that undercut US manufacturers, I was more referring to subsidiary companies like Epiphone or this one. I do regret that my wording was rather poor.).

I seem to remember the BM B6 model was set at £1400 or so and factoring in the fictional exchange rate that would be employed by a distributor taking them to the UK the Suhrs might end up as being more expensive than the BM second hand.

[horsehead]

sifu they look ace!