UNDER THE HOOD
Modern in style, but what’s inside?
The bridge pickup is girthsome and powerful, while the neck unit is a little more rootsy sounding
Removing the 3mm thick aluminium backplate, which also holds the output jack, you might expect to see a modernist circuit board. But no, things here are pretty conventional. The cavity itself has copper foil lining and we basically have two 500k CTS pots and a Schaller Megaswitch (M) five-way lever pickup selector. The tone capacitor is a standard Mylar .022 microfarads (2A223), while the treble bleed circuit uses a 680 picofarads (681) capacitor in parallel with a 150kohms resistor. Suhr’s pickups are well renowned and both here – Suhr SSH+ at the bridge and SSV in the neck position – are SS (as in ‘single screw’) open-coiled humbuckers. The SSH+ has a measured DCR of 16kohms and is described by Suhr as “a true high-output humbucker. The pickup exhibits excellent harmonic content, lots of midrange and a focused lowend. Well suited for classic rock or metal.” The SSV neck pickup has a measured DCR of 7.33k, offering “a broad sonic aperture with very little compression”, says Suhr, “making for a dynamic, vintage output humbucker, a versatile pickup that combines the warmth of a vintage humbucker with increased clarity and definition”. Although it’s direct-mounted, there is some heightadjustment capability. Position 2 on the five-way selector links the inside slug coils of each humbucker in parallel. Position 3 voices the outside screw coils in parallel, while position 4 voices just the screw coil of the neck humbucker.