Rasmus Guitars - Suhr "Affordable" Line

[Trypp Powell]

These look interesting. The Suhr pickups and a plek job at this price range is intriguing (I've read they will street around $1000.00)

http://www.rasmusguitars.com/

With these and the SoCals, the options for a good guitar around a grand seem to be improving.

[Flatpicker]

Yeah.
I guess.

but the SoCals are MIA and the Rasmus are MI Asia.

I'd go for the Charvel in that choice.

Actually, I really didn't think we needed another mid level line right now.
The market is pretty flooded already.

[Grandturk]

What's up with the shitty sideways scrolling website?

FAIL!!!

[Flatpicker]

So they mentioned on their forum that they will be MIC.

[markD]

a chinese guitar for that price!?!?! dang....

[Flatpicker]

Yeah.
I'm less than impressed with this idea.

[RacerX]

China? Bah!

[Nightbat]

looks friggin budgetstuff in the closeups if you ask me

[Trypp Powell]

The red reminds me of old Kramers. I think these might do well in Europe.

[Psh511]

It seems that they are MIA but use Suhr pickups, Premium hardware, pleked and they will all be set up and finished here in the Suhr factory...sounds like a good deal to me

[Flatpicker]

It seems that they are MIA but use Suhr pickups, Premium hardware, pleked and they will all be set up and finished here in the Suhr factory...sounds like a good deal to me

MIA = no.
MIC = Yes.

Ed Yoon on the Suhr forum admitted it was China as the country of origin.

The whole thing makes very little sense from an honesty standpoint.
The website pushes the German Frets, MIJ Floyd, MIA electronics, then the get vague about the "Made in Asia" part.
If they were proud about it, they would not be as intellectually dishonest.

Damn shame too as I like my Shur's, but, probably won't be buying another. You get dishonest with one aspect of your company, I don't trust you with any aspect.

Funny thing is if they were MIK or MIJ or MIM, I would have been ok with it.
Then they would not have had to hide it I guess.

[Flatpicker]

Quote from the Suhr forum:

"Hi guys,

Just taking a short break before we head out over to Tone Merchants to see Steve Stevens play with Peter Thorn.

I can't get into all the points being raised on this thread and elsewhere. We knew that this project would be controversial and bring up some serious concerns, so I'll briefly address some of the issues that have been brought up. We'll address these things more thoroughly after NAMM and in the months ahead.

Regarding the country of origin, yes, it's China but China is a country of 1.3 billion people (size of two United States and all of Europe in population). It's literally a different world from the West and even other Asian countries. It is soon poised to be the second largest economy in the world (overtaking Japan) and will overtake the US in around 15~20 years and is projected to have an economy twice the size of the US by the middle of this century. This century will become the century of China.

I don't quite understand the vehemence expressed towards the country of China although I can understand the issues raised about the Chinese communist government. I really think something like that is outside the scope of what we're doing as virtually everything we see today and use are goods made in China - from auto parts to home appliances to iPhones to computers that we're using to communicate at this very moment.

All factories and companies aren't equal. This is a factory run by a Taiwanese management that has been building guitars since the 70's in Taiwan and moved their operations over to China in 1994, which is when I started working with them when I was working for Fender. It's a factory that I've spent many months in doing procurement and QC work during my years overseeing Fender's imported products operations.

Of all the factories I've seen and worked with during my years in Asia (Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Indonesia), this is the factory that has always impressed me the most because of their professional management and trust I've built up with them over all these years. It's a beautiful state-of-the-art factory that is ISO9000/2-certified with working conditions that exceed that of most factories in the US. The workers there wear clean uniforms in a facility that is so clean that it looks like a computer or auto factory. And they get paid well and this factory has a reputation for being pretty expensive to OEM buyers in the US, Europe, and Japan looking for the cheapest sources possible.

We will provide photos and videos of this factory eventually so you can see that this is not some horrendous operation with deplorable working conditions using prison labor or anything like that. This factory and company does things by the books (including air quality management) that would shame some companies in the US. So please understand that we chose our source carefully and that this is a great factory with an unmatched reputation for commitment to quality in the guitar industry. Compared to other factories in Asia, their prices are high but for a good reason.

Also, this factory will implement a separate line of production for the Rasmus guitars. It will be a like a "custom shop" within the factory that will be dedicated to building our guitars as we need them to be built. They will be sending their top managers and builders to our facility to learn our processes and we will be going over there on a regular basis as well. I will be going over to the factory before they make each shipment and inspect each guitar before it gets packed and ready to ship to our facility.

One more thing, our maximum volume for the foreseeable future is a mere 300~350 units per month worldwide. That's a lot less than what the Fender Custom Shop does. We have well over 100 dealers worldwide and the Rasmus guitars will only be available to authorized Suhr dealers. We are not taking this line to GC or even other non-Suhr dealers. We will ramp up slowly from around 100 units per month and slowly build up from there until we max out what our Plek machine and our personnel can handle.

Like any of our other products, we won't ship anything unless we believed that they were the best guitars at that price point. The way we look at it, these guitars are indeed aimed at the younger crowd who already know about Suhr but can't afford one. We've done a lot of market research over the years and talked in-depth with our dealers about this for well over a year now. All the dealers have been very enthusiastic about this project and they've been very receptive to the samples displayed at NAMM. Artists like Guthrie Govan, Andy Wood and others all marveled at what you get for the money. But, no, these aren't Suhrs. They're Rasmus and it won't affect what Suhr does.

I have to run now and I'll have more to say over the coming weeks. Over 90% of the dealers and customers who checked out the Rasmus guitars at NAMM were extremely positive and excited about the line. They want the guitars now but our first production run won't start until June. Till then, we will continually work on refining the guitars so that the production guitars will be even better than the samples. That will include numerous trips by both sides to work together as a team. We don't take quality lightly and we're going to do the best we can to provide the best quality guitars at different price points. $999 is not cheap. This is still high-end and we understand that. Like on anything else, we will shoot for the best, not the most.

I'll have more to say and address other concerns when I have more time. Off to see Steve Stevens now!

Cheers!
_________________
Ed Yoon

Suhr Guitars & Amps
Marketing, Sales, & Customer Services Director"

[BenoA]

Over 1000$ for a chinese made guitar = fail!

[RobRR]

So uh... that sounds like a hell of a lot of work for an import. Why not just put together a budget minded, dedicated USA production line that builds only those guitars? If FMIC can do it w Charvels, why cant Shur? No shipping hassles, wait times or any other BS. If theres a problem, get in the car and drive 15 minutes to the plant to see whats up... not fly 15 hrs. I dunno, I guess I just dont understand corporations... they just dont care about the USA workers, theyd rather save $14 a guitar to have em made in China.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

The Chinese economy is doing so well in part because we, and everyone else, have been and keep on sending them our money for crap we could make ourselves.