Guitar Noize - guitar news, crazy guitar designs and cool guitar videos

The new Slash Appetite For Destruction Les Paul is now up on the Gibson site but this video shows Slash talking about the original guitar and how the guitar differs from a regular Les Paul.

Check out this new video posted up on Steve Vai’s YouTube channel about the Ibanez Universe 20th Anniversary Reissue. I had serious G.A.S. for this guitar when I first saw the cover of Passion & Warfare back 1990 and made a conscious decision to buy one as soon as I had the money, of course I was only 14 at the time and was a long way off my goal and then the urge passed and I never bought one. Now we all have another chance as the 20th Anniversary Reissue has been announced, the classic swirl finish has been reproduced exactly as per the original so get out your leather pants, cowboy boots and put some dangly feathers in your hair and rock out early 90’s style!

This is part 2 of my Suhr S4 demo (check out part 1 here), this time using a combination of my Genz Benz Black Pearl tube amp overdrive and the Suhr Koko Boost to push the tubes a little more. As you will hear in the demo despite the classic strat styling and my vintage looking chrome humbucker this guitar is certainly capable of some great and pretty heavy rock tones due to the high output SSH+ humbucker.  The single coils are, as are most single coil pickups, a little noisy with the boost but if you don’t mind a bit of hum they overdrive nicely.

I used an Audix i5 Microphone and CabGrabber to hold the mic in place off axis (edge of the cone) and an Armor Gold and a Planet Waves cable to connect the pedal to my Black Pearl.

http://www.suhrguitars.com

In this first demonstration of my stunning new Suhr S4 I show the different clean sounds possible from each pickup selector position. To add a bit of top end sparkle to my Genz Benz Black Pearl amp I used a Suhr Koko Boost set to halfway, this pedal is an amazing clean boost which really brings out the character of my amp and seems to add a little extra clarity. I mic’d my amp using an Audix i5 Dynamic Microphone held in place by an Audix CabGrabber (http://audixusa.com).

Coming soon I will post a demo of my S4 with Overdriven tones to show you how this Strat style guitar is capable of incredible rock tones.

The riff in the demo is an attempt at the intro to Hairflip by Josh Smith from the album Inception. Check out my review of the album here and to hear some of the tracks streaming check out Josh’s MySpace page.

http://joshsmithguitar.com

This week I received my new Suhr S4 after an agonising 4 month wait for it to be built and boy was it worth the wait. I chose to go with the S4 because I wanted a combination of classic Stratocaster looks and tonal capabilities but with a humbucker in the bridge for added versatility. I also wanted a Maple fretboard as I already have 2 Rosewood fretboard guitars, the S4 has a beautiful 1 piece Maple neck with a skunk stripe that is absolutely flawless and it’s 10 - 14” radius and angled heel joint make it feel almost identical to my Ibanez JS1000 so it is instantly comfortable. The body is comprised of John Suhr’s “holy grail” formula, Basswood body and AAAAA Flame Maple top with an amazing Maple binding that is apparently hand scraped and is so perfect that you can’t feel any difference between the Basswood and the Maple, it is like a smooth piece of glass.

The pickups are Suhr’s flagship Fletcher Landau single coil pickups in the neck and middle position and an Chrome covered high output SSH+ in the bridge which uses the highest grade hand-selected Alnico magnets and premium components. The pickups are controlled with a 5 way selector switch for maximum tonal variation. There is a single tone knob and volume knob, none of these pesky double tone knobs which I find fiddly.

I will be recording a video demo of this guitar in action soon so you can hear just how many tones you can coax out of this classy instrument, in the meantime enjoy the slideshow above of my new pride and joy.

http://suhrguitars.com/

Suhr Guitars have announced via their discussion forum and 2010 price list that the Pro Classic and Pro Classic T models, a more affordable version of the Classic and Classic T models which are available as custom orders. When I say more affordable there is absolutely no drop in quality, I have just received a Pro S4 and it is the highest quality on an instrument I have ever seen. What Suhr do to reduce production costs is to fix a number of options that are normally variable such as colour, fret type, bridge, tuners and pickups. You do get a choice between a 1 piece Maple neck or a Maple neck with a Rosewood fingerboard however.

The colours currently available for the Pro Classic are: Black, Olympic White, Sonic Blue, Surf Green, Vintage White and Fiesta Red. I assume these will also be the colour options for the Classic T although at the moment their forum is only showing Olympic White, Sonic Blue and Vintage White.

Pricing starts at USD $2,900 MSRP.

Thanks to Mark McGuigan for the heads up.