Heart Of The Sunrise
SS.org Regular
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2021
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Seeing the new Ibanez headless models got me thinking about how in the past couple of years Ibanez and Charvel have managed to grab quite a few "2nd wave shredders" (basically the fusion-inspired shred players that came on the scene in the mid-late 00s and gained prominence in the 10s) who previously either endorsed or frequently played Suhr by coming out with the AZ and DK lines respectively. Basically the general characteristics of Suhrs as compared to the major manufacturers were the roasted maple necks, SS frets, transparent finished bodies, and pickups that lean to the "hot" side but are generally more versatile than their metal-oriented counterparts. Obviously, Ibanez and FMC took note of this popularity and came out with their takes on this style of guitar, and were able to gain a bunch of former Suhr artists with better endorsement deals (since they have larger budgets).
All of the "Suhr converts" I can think of off the top of my head: Guthrie Govan (Charvel Sig), Martin Miller (Ibanez AZ sig), Tom Quayle (Ibanez AZ sig), Rick Graham (Charvel DK24), Lari Basilio (Ibanez AZ sig), Jack Gardiner (Ibanez AZ), Chris Brooks (Charvel DK) (Chris mostly played Ibbys, but I remember Suhrs in the rotation too).
Also worth noting is the fact that Ibanez now basically has a deadlock on the mathrock-shred market considering they have both Polyphia guys and both CHON guys, again thanks to the Suhr-inspired AZ, and now already has pull in the headless market because they came out of the gate with an Ichika Nito signature. I believe the dude from Good Tiger (which I've admittedly never listened to, but believe to be around the same genre) plays a Charvel DK24 now too. Considering that Mateus Asato, one of the first popularizers of the clean/compressed/two handed tapping style of playing has been a longtime Suhr endorser, and that the aforementioned Ibanez guys all play AZs (except Ichika), I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to assume at least one of these people would have been endorsing Suhr were it not for the AZ.
Anyway, all of this was just to say that I feel bad that Suhr has lost quite a few prominent players considering that they're basically directly responsible for a hugely popular style of superstrat in the current guitar scenes.
All of the "Suhr converts" I can think of off the top of my head: Guthrie Govan (Charvel Sig), Martin Miller (Ibanez AZ sig), Tom Quayle (Ibanez AZ sig), Rick Graham (Charvel DK24), Lari Basilio (Ibanez AZ sig), Jack Gardiner (Ibanez AZ), Chris Brooks (Charvel DK) (Chris mostly played Ibbys, but I remember Suhrs in the rotation too).
Also worth noting is the fact that Ibanez now basically has a deadlock on the mathrock-shred market considering they have both Polyphia guys and both CHON guys, again thanks to the Suhr-inspired AZ, and now already has pull in the headless market because they came out of the gate with an Ichika Nito signature. I believe the dude from Good Tiger (which I've admittedly never listened to, but believe to be around the same genre) plays a Charvel DK24 now too. Considering that Mateus Asato, one of the first popularizers of the clean/compressed/two handed tapping style of playing has been a longtime Suhr endorser, and that the aforementioned Ibanez guys all play AZs (except Ichika), I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to assume at least one of these people would have been endorsing Suhr were it not for the AZ.
Anyway, all of this was just to say that I feel bad that Suhr has lost quite a few prominent players considering that they're basically directly responsible for a hugely popular style of superstrat in the current guitar scenes.
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