High End S-Style Guitar Shootout - Which do you prefer? 

Correct!

@@davidjdriver Well, there's no doubt that if a player were to compare a Suhr, Nash, Fender CS Masterbuilt with a Squire or something of that caliber that they will find a difference in difference in quality between them, both in tone, feel, construction and everything else that goes with that. Neither would I say that the differences aren't substantial, because I know that they are. My point was in the far end of the spectrum when you get into the $8000 Strats. The difference between a $350 Squire and a $2600 Suhr are obvious as soon as you try the two. I agree that odds are that if you were to buy a Suhr you'll likely be happy with it until the last day you're able to strum a chord. The Squires, while definitely having improved, none the less can be "grown out of". A new player will be perfectly content, but as a students experience builds, so does their expectations from their instruments. You say they whether or not the difference in price being worth it is a matter of opinion, and that's absolutely true, especially when you're looking at the Squire vs Suhr example. But when you get to comparing the $2600 Suhr and an$6000-8000 boutique instrument, the difference goes from things that you can objectively point to and moves to a philosophical debate. I pointed out earlier in my original post that I've had just about every different guitar on my bench and in my hands at one point it another, and that is the reason I can confidently say that, again objectively, the $3400-5400 INCREASE in price (on top of the $2600 price you've already paid) is most certainly not worth it, at least in and physical sense. I'm perfectly aware of the increase in price when you get to the "collectable" market. People ignore that part all the time in this debate, the best example are the Dumble amps. Skeptics are are completely right when they say that the sound or feel of the Dumble isn't anywhere near justifying $80K for an amp. To that I point to the vintage Mustang vs 2020. In every way the modern Mustang is superior; its many times over as fast, the comparison in handling and performance isn't even close, and a modern 500H.P engine gets something like 3 times the gas mileage. But the person buying the vintage Mustang isn't buying it for that reason. I can understand spending tens of thousands of dollars on a vintage guitar, though not $10,000 on a new Strat. There was a custom shop SRV that looks exactly like the $1600 MIA sig model, but was like $6000. If you can point to any reason that it would be worth even half of that compared to the production model, I would concede to you without objection. Cheers

I agree that $8000 strats are ridiculous. There are real differences between lower-end and higher-end strats though. The wood quality, pickups, fretwork, construction, and aesthetics definitely get better with more expensive instruments. I will admit that the height of actual build quality/playability/tone differences probably ends at around $2500. Anything more than that, you are paying for aesthetics or something with a limited supply. If people want to pay more for expensive woods or a fancy relic job, that's fine, but they should understand that they aren't getting a better instrument than a stock Suhr or LSL.

@@ShinMadero exactly. The overarching sentiment is basically that the Strats and Teles that Fender puts out in their entry level Custom Shops could be produced at the regular US production models. While it definitely would be more expensive to build; it will take longer to produce them, they would need to start out with some components (wood as well as hardware) that will be more expensive, not just because each component will be more expensive at the start, but because it would also necessitate rejecting pieces that would be deemed acceptable for current production. You're 100% correct that there is a world of difference between a $500 Strat and a $1500 model. I know that fact can be hard for some to accept, specifically to the players who state that "I've owned MIM, MIA and CS models, and my MIM is just as good as the MIA." My response to that is; 1) I don't think that you actually have owned those or you wouldn't be saying that, and 2) I can completely understand why someone would want to believe their $300 used Strat is just as good as I've 4 times the price, but it's just not true. I tend to hear this more now that I work with amps and pedals more than guitars. I'm in danger at times of losing the ability to see when my eyes roll so much that I run the chance of them not coming back. Especially when I hear the "placebo effect" line. I've been on the other side of the bench for many years now, and I can say without hesitation that I have never, NEVER heard of the anyone actually experiencing a placebo effect. I hear, and personally have experienced, the "honeymoon phase," but never a placebo.

@@timwhite5562 check out the Anderton's channel. Seasoned professionals have no chance distinguishing between a Squir Classiv Vibe for £400 and a CS for £3k in a blindfold challenge. Yes materials are different, and it adds up, better trem + 100, better pickups +100, better fretwork +100, better QA = more rejected parts/items = +30% on everything. And that's all wholesale so add factor 2x for retail at least. So add everything up you end with +660 which pretty much brings the Squir to a US model. Still you can't really fell or hear the difference. But it's there.

I’ve been of the same opinion regarding two bits of wood bolted together. I’d put my 88 American Standard Tele up against any Custom Shop of the same wood combination any day. On the other hand my 2011 American Standard wouldn’t fair as well. Why? Fender realised around the time they moved to Corona that there was nowhere to go with their range in order to make bigger bucks, so they reduced the quality of wood selected for their mass produced line in order to make way for the vintage and custom shop guitars. The vintage range in its various transitions has always been very limited in its offering, particularly when it comes to colour, in order to make it appear that the custom shop offerings are far more desirable and therefore worth the added value. Do I think that custom shop guitars are the same as production guitars? …..No, except perhaps for the vintage reissues……..and that’s the way the big companies want it. In 88 you could buy the top of the line equivalent of a custom shop guitar for the price of what it was, an American Standard. Now the price between American Standard and custom shop is at least double, triple or more. Hand wound, machine wound, CNC, hand shaped - there’s very little if any difference between them. No matter how high the price goes, you’re ultimately buying what was once the American Standard, not some new amazing innovation.

Dude seriously!

jake hurley that’s the stainless steel frets, can’t stand that sound personally

@@zwip778 I hate em too.Frets should be nickel silver. When they get worn level or replace them. Don’t compromise on feel or sound to save a few bucks on maintenance.

@@gregs8685 boomers booming real hard, unable to use an eq to save their life.

It may sound weird, but I understand what you’re saying about the Suhr. It’s too “perfect,” too the point of being too polite. Like it went to finishing school for twelve years and couldn’t relate to anyone LOL!

Nicholas Totoro it’s the stainless steel

You're high!

I'm not getting a lot of the stratty overtones/ harmonic distortionon/whatever on many of these guitars, agreed. Especially the suhr. Sound is lacking something.

Thanks Mark. We just added a bit of reverb in post using Logic X' s PlatinumVerb.

James Emerson why leave so soon :-)

Stainless Steel 🤦‍♂️

Honestly when I played the Traditional Wembley (which is different from a regular Traditional, neck wise too) the neck felt everything but thin.

They said high end

William Exactly....

@@pappyodanial the silver sky is more "high end" then half the models they featured lol

@@seikatsu4life you must be joking

Or Friedman!

Funny you should say that, Jack's starting a GoFundMe campaign with a minimum donation of £100. You in?

@@PeachGuitars Fly him over here and I'll chauffeur him down to Nashville where he can take Brent Mason's job. Where's his link?

if you like the strat sound

konnektlive pretty sure its the ml pickups. Not my favorite pickups of theirs. V60lp is more my fav...

I agree, the Suhr's that they've demo'd so far do sound a bit dull compared to the Fender Custom Shop models, etc. However, as khoirus sobri has pointed out, that could be due to the pickups.

Monty Cantsin ive listened other suhr models. The basic acoustic response is nice, awesome in fact. For example the one with v60lp is really good. I also already played a few. And it is very nice.

Well, I have played plenty Suhr guitars so far in the shops and in the studio. Their built quality is great but even acoustically they sound very flat? and compressed in compare to Nash, Anderson and Fender CS or even Fender Elite. As I said earlier somewhere else, I was really surprised how good Fender Elites are and to my ears the sounded more authentic than any Classic Pro Suhr I have played so far. It's like the Classic Pros sound and feel very stiff and dense for some reason.

dont forget setup matters quite a lot to the overall sound too. lower action, lighter gauge (or correct gauge for my hand) or flatter truss rod setting in my experience opened up the sound of the instrument. Even changing tuning can completely change the attack and feel. I've played same guitar with different setup, and it feels like two different guitar. again, interesting how different experience can be. a while back, i've tried in a same day, nash, suhr, and anderson at the same time. Anderson is great yes. Suhr is incredible also. all setup correctly, but nash just fall short under those two. Slightly stiffer and lifeless feeling compared to the two. it's like i have to fight the guitar a bit. Not to mention not only the guitar looks old, it really does feels 'old', whether thats good or bad. the finish crack and everything, the neck, feels a bit slow due to how heavy the aging is. If thats what people looking for, great. Its got the tone, but not my first choice in feel (and feel affect tone in my book).

Hey Mitch, this video is pretty old now. Try this updated version and see if it offers a more well rounded overview - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NvS_adbVPWA.html

As well as Friedman

If you like the vintage sound i think Xotic is way better than Suhr. If you like more modern Suhr is the way to go.

Hey Berta, yes, each guitar is secured and you need to ask to hold them, something that we are happy to do for anybody. We carry a huge amount of stock at great value, we can't afford to have it at risk of theft or damage, it's not a trust thing it's a protection thing. You're more than welcome to try anything, but we'll get it down for you!