Amplification has been a love of John's from the early 80's. Surprising to many, John designs, modifies, and builds amplifiers that are amongst the very best and the most highly sought-after in the world – certainly a worthy match for our renowned guitars. It's John's complete understanding of the entire signal chain – from the woods and the metal components in a guitar, to the pickups and their materials and structure, to the design layout of the PC board or PTP construction and the value of each component in an amplifier, to the design of the cabinets and its acoustic properties – that gives Suhr Guitars a distinct advantage in creating the best possible playing experience. Working with some of the top players in the industry from his days in New York, John learned on his own about what makes a great sounding amp.
After leaving Rudy's Music Stop in NY, John made the trek to LA and joined forces with Bob Bradshaw of Custom Audio Electronics in 1991 to design and manufacture the 3+ preamp and the OD-100 amplifiers. The OD-100 and the 3+ (later the 3+SE) soon became a standard in the LA studio scene, embraced by top-flight players such as Mike Landau and Steve Lukather as well as many others. John also did extensive amp modification and repair work for various great players such as Eddie Van Halen. John's uncanny ability to envision a great sound that players seek and applying his natural engineering skills to develop great sounding amps for professional use won him a diehard following of some of the best players in the world.
Even after John left CAE to work at the Fender Custom Shop, he continued to modify amps on the side and found the time to build the low-power Tweed Twin that Eric Clapton used in the mid-to-late 90's. John's broad and deep knowledge of both the classic American Fender circuits as well as the classic British Marshall circuits is what allowed him to design what many consider the best American-and-British-sounds-in-one-box amplifier in the world: the OD-100. The OD-100 has evolved into several versions to cover a wide array of musical styles and tastes and the basic OD-100 design is being used by players ranging from Scott Henderson to Mike Landau to Reb Beach to Steve Stevens to Kirk Fletcher to Rob Marcello.
The OD-100 production languished under CAE during John's years at the Fender Custom Shop and the early years of Suhr Guitars, but John always knew that he'd be getting back into amps. In 2004, Suhr Guitars took over the manufacturing and distribution of the OD-100 and the amp immediately became a big hit amongst the tone aficionados who had heard of or about this legendary amp but never actually heard one in person or played one. All of a sudden, Suhr Guitars had become a serious player in the crowded high-end "boutique" amp market. There are four versions of the OD-100: Standard, SE, Classic, and the 50, each with a distinctive character to suit particular musical situations.
From the most gorgeous vintage American clean sounds with a beautiful sparkling high-end and a big punchy low-end, to warm growling overdrive sounds that are organic and sweet, to singing and silky lead sounds that cut through a dense mix, to brutal and intense modern distortion sounds that pulverize with a chest-thumping low-end and shred with cutting yet toneful high-mids and smooth treble that never gets ice-picky in your ears, our OD-100 can cover all the bases and then some! Suhr Guitars is just getting started on a whole new line of Suhr-branded amps and we will extend the tonal foundation that has been laid down by the OD-100 in the years ahead. As is with our guitars and pickups, the future of tone is with Suhr Amps. You can look forward to many new Suhr amp models to suit every musical style coming out for many years to come. We look forward to providing you, the serious player and tone freak, new amps that will inspire you to creative heights that you've only imagined but never achieved. Now plug in and play!
Rating: 4.8
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