John Suhr / Suhr Guitars

John Suhr Rasmussen was born in Copenhagen DENMARK in 1956, and only 3 years old, when his family relocated to the US. His father worked as an agent for European luxury hotels, promoting these to wealthy americans, and business people.

He started his building career many years ago in New Jersey. Working in bars and clubs as a guitarplayer, he was searching for the perfect tone, and John began building his own instruments.
In the early 80’s John started working for Rudy Pensa at Rudy’s Music Stop in NYC. It was during this time that the “Pensa-Suhr” guitars were born. John built guitars under the “Pensa-Suhr” brand for Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Lou Reed, Bill Connors, Steve Stevens, Reb Beach, Pat Thrall, Little Steven, Victor Bailey Pensa-Suhr Bass, Chuck Loeb, Eddie Martinez (Robert Palmer) and many others.

In 1991, John left NYC to work with Bob Bradshaw, and they designed the CAA 3+ and 3+SE tube preamps and CAA OD100 amp.

But in 1995, he went back to building guitars, accepting a job as Senior Master Builder at the Fender Custom Shop. There he built custom guitars to order, and was involved in R&D for new product development. His clients included, and still include: Michael Landau, Scott Henderson, Doug Aldrich and Peter Frampton.

This lasted for a couple of years until 1997, where John Suhr opened up his own small factory in Lake Elsinore, situated in southern California (You know – where it never rains) A couple of hours south of LA.

With total control over the entire process of building the ideal electric guitars, Suhr was building custom guitars and basses by order, and without any shortcuts, the brand gained a high reputation from the very beginning.

Still in Lake Elsinore, Suhr moved to a new State of The Art factory, and the company has expanded heavily since 1997, without sacrificing quality. Anyone who has visited the factory will witness, that the standards are extremely high. And not only is Suhr building excellent instruments, but over the years, the company has done well with amplifiers, pickups, pedals and accessories – all with the same approach, and dedication towards quality.

Today John’s son Kevin, is involved in the daily running of the company, and John Suhr finds more time to work on new products and design, keeping the Suhr brand alive and kicking, many years ahead.