Suhr Guitars is known for producing some of the finest hand-crafted guitars and amplifiers around. With the goal of making more than just instruments, but ‘produce dreams that inspire musical passion and artistic creativity’, the Suhr Guitars team is dedicated to the highest standards of quality possible. Their master builders’ fanatical attention to detail, expert ears for tone, and their love for music are reflected in the guitars they build for Suhr Guitars.

The vision of Suhr Guitars founder, John Suhr, is to design and produce the best musical instruments and electronics possible. And this passion for greatness can be felt across all departments of the company. From the hard work of dedicated employees who all share a love for music, to technological know-how of their machine specialists, and the skill of experienced master builders – they all come together to create instruments that are played and savoured by guitarists around the world. 

As you can probably tell, the greatest asset of Suhr Guitars is the tight knit team of people who are dedicated to build the very best guitars possible; not just their founder, John Suhr. The fact that they clearly and proudly communicate this to their community is why we love and respect their brand here at Kauffmann’s Guitar Store. And, of course, because they make amazing guitars.

An all-original 1950s Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster is the ultimate instrument for many guitarists when it comes to sound and vibe.

Suhr Guitars founder John Suhr, however, is not among this devoted Fender fan club. As a teenager in the 1970s, John Suhr bought his first guitar in order to play songs by Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and The Who. With his new found passion taking a hold of him, he upgraded to a Fender Stratocaster, but quickly grew frustrated with its tendency to go out of tune, as well as the fact that it kept fretting out. Taking matters into his own hands, he had himself a new neck made, by none other than legendary archtop builder, Bob Benedetto. As he started hanging around Bob’s shop, John started down the path of building his own guitars.

In his 20s, John moved to New York, where he initially worked in the restaurant business to pay rent, but quickly got himself a gig at Rudy’s Music Shop, where he started in the repair department. While working at Rudy’s John got to know hundreds, if not thousands, of electric guitars, many of them classic vintage builds. This exposure to such a vast variety of guitars gave him insight into what worked on these guitars, and what didn’t. It was this insight that would lay the foundation for Suhr Guitars later on. But his learning didn’t stop there.

In 1995, John was offered a job as a senior master builder at the Fender’s Custom Shop, where he was involved in some very cool projects, and heavily invested in pushing for Research & Development for pick-ups and finishes, within the Fender organization.

He quickly realised that working for a large organisation such as Fender did come with its limits, and after a few years he started to crave for more autonomy and freedom to experiment. During his time at the Custom Shop, John met Steve Smith, a representative and programmer at a CNC software company, with whom he started Suhr Guitars/JS Technologies in 1997.

The early days of Suhr Guitars were exciting ones, though not easy. John did all the finishing touches, from sanding bodies, fretting necks, to finishing the guitars himself – often working up to 20 hours a day to meet customer demand for Suhr Guitars. But the effort and long hours paid off eventually. Suhr Guitars continued to grow, and now employs just over 100 people who operate the company’s 27,000 square foot, state of the art facilities in Lake Elsinore, California.

Suhr Guitars production lines include the Professional, Antique, and Satin series, all of which are made with impressive standards of craftsmanship. This is, in part, thanks to Suhr Guitars innovation and application of CNC machinery and a Plek – in other words, computer controlled – fret treatment. Today, Suhr Guitars is known for incorporating vintage-approved specs such as nitrocellulose lacquer finishes, in combination with modern touches like compound-radius fretboards and stainless-steel frets.