Two Suhr S-types, a Suhr Modern, and a PRS Custom 24 — four instruments, four jobs. When to reach for which, why, and the secret sauce for getting the best out of each one through the wet/dry rig.
| Suhr S (Landaus) | Suhr Custom Standard | Suhr Modern Plus | PRS Custom 24 Core | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Character | Vocal, raw, mid-forward. The talker. | Refined S-type. Glassy, balanced, classic. | Hot, thick, modern. The athlete. | Hi-fi, even, polished. The diplomat. |
| Voice in one word | HONK | CHIME | POWER | BALANCE |
| Blues | ★ best — the barking single-coil blues machine | excellent — smoother, more polite blues | good — fat humbucker blues, less cluck | good — clean blues, less raw character |
| Fusion lead | ★ best — the Landau voice itself | excellent — Robben Ford territory | excellent — high-gain fusion, legato king | very good — smooth, even sustain |
| Funk / rhythm | ★ best — position 2/4 cluck | excellent — classic quack | ok — too thick for real cluck | good — clean and tidy, less spank |
| High gain / chug | ok — single-coils run out of headroom | good (if HSS, bridge bucker helps) | ★ best — built for exactly this | very good — tight and articulate |
| Cleans / vibe chords | very good — warm neck cleans | excellent — bell-like | good — darker cleans | ★ best — piano-like, even, lush |
| Recording (dry channel truth) | character-rich takes | the versatile default | thick walls of tone | ★ best — sits in a mix with no fuss |
| Best pedal partners | Butter Machine · Broadcast · SD9 | Venus · AC+ · DCX | SD9 · Broadcast high-gain · (Revv-type) | DCX · AC+ · clean into BigSky |
When to use it: any time the playing is about expression — blues, honk, the Phrygian-dominant exotic work, the Music by Design phrasing packs, slow bends with wide vibrato, anything where one note has to carry emotion. The Landau pickups have a forward midrange bark that cuts through the wet/dry blend and talks.
Why it wins there: the whole signal chain agrees with it — the Butter Machine is literally voiced for these pickups, and the Broadcast's germanium mids stack with the Landau mids into pure vocal honk. It's the guitar the rig was unconsciously built around.
Volume at 7–8, always. These pickups are designed to live rolled-back — full-up is the solo boost, not home. At 7 the Broadcast+Butter combo sits at edge-of-breakup and cleans up with your fingers; dig in and it barks.
Neck pickup + tone rolled to ~7 for the woody vocal honk. Position 2 with tone full up for funk — the cluck lives in the in-between position and needs the top end open.
Pick position is the second tone knob: near the neck = round and flutey, near the bridge = the bark. Work the whole span in one phrase — that's the Landau trick.
When to use it: sessions where you'll cover ground — some clean, some blues, some comping, some lead. It does the classic S-type things (bell-like cleans, quack, singing lead) with a smoother, less opinionated voice than the Landau S. If the S is Buchanan, this is Robben Ford — refined blues-fusion, beautiful cleans, never harsh.
Why it wins there: its balance means every pedal sounds like itself through it. It's the honest reference guitar for auditioning tones — including your new DCX settings.
This is the guitar for the DCX EQ experiments — its neutral voice shows you exactly what the console EQ is doing. Set the rig flat, play this, shape the DCX until it sings, and those settings will translate to the others.
Middle pickup solo'd is the underrated jewel on a refined S-type — even, round, sits perfectly in a dense wet/dry mix for melodic comping.
Tone knob at 8–9, not 10 — takes the glassy edge off the top and reveals the "expensive" midrange without dulling it.
When to use it: the Vibe Chug sessions, funky-metal power chords, high-gain fusion, fast legato, anything saturated. Its hotter humbuckers push the front of the Broadcast/SD9 into thicker breakup than the single-coils can, and the modern neck invites the athletic stuff. This is also the guitar that would love a Revv-style high-gain pedal if that itch ever returns.
Why it wins there: headroom and girth. Where the S runs out of output, the Modern leans in — chugs stay tight, leads sustain for days, and the thick voice fills a track on its own.
Split the bucker (if coil-split equipped) + Broadcast low-gain = a fat pseudo-single-coil that covers surprising funk ground when you don't want to switch guitars.
For chug: SD9 gain LOW, level HIGH, palm mutes near the bridge. The tightness comes from the amp being slammed, not the pedal saturating.
Roll the neck pickup volume to ~8 with the Butter Machine on — the hot neck humbucker at full is woofy; at 8 it turns into a singing fusion lead voice with the flub gone.
When to use it: recording sessions where you need takes that sit in a mix without fuss; the Ten Chords vibe sessions (its piano-like even response is made for open ringing chords into the BigSky); long comfortable playing sessions; and anything where consistency beats character. It's the least honk — we've established that — but honk isn't always the job.
Why it wins there: its evenness means no wolf notes, no wild string-to-string jumps, nothing to fight in the mix. Through the DCX and into the Babyface it produces the most predictable, produceable signal you own.
Its magic position is neck pickup, coil-split (pull the tone knob), tone at 8 — a shimmering not-quite-single-coil that's gorgeous for the open vibe chords and ambient swells. This is the Custom 24's hidden identity.
For recording: DCX in EQ mode, tiny H.F. lift — the PRS's polite top end takes studio air beautifully without ever getting harsh, which the Suhrs' brighter voices don't need.
Don't chase honk on it. Play to its evenness — arpeggios, chords, clean melodic lines. The moment you want bark, change guitars. Knowing what a guitar ISN'T for is half of tone.
Expression / blues / saying something → Suhr S. Bit of everything / auditioning tones → Custom Standard. Power / riffs / speed → Modern Plus. Recording / chords / consistency → PRS Custom 24.
Music by Design Packs 01–02 (phrasing, the exotic ♭2 work) → the S, no contest — expression is the entire exercise. Ten Chords to Vibe On → the PRS, coil-split neck, BigSky huge. Vibe Chug riffs → the Modern Plus. The funk MIDI groove → the S in position 2, or the Custom Standard for smoother comping. Four guitars, four lanes, zero overlap — that's a well-designed stable.