Suhr Modern vs PRS Custom 24 vs Ernie Ball Music Man JPXI

[Clark Kent]

Wanted to create this comparison as a blind folded poll for you guys to avoid any biased opinions. I know I'm biased and I know we all are. So here's the poll: Three high end guitars, let's call them 1, 2 and 3 in the order of them being played. Every guitar is showcaseing a Fender Blackface, Marshall JCM800 and Mesa Dual Rectifier. Which of the guitars did you prefer?

Dunno if you guys saw this already but here's a video on the subject also:



Opinions!

 

[EffigyForgotten]

PRS custom 24 >

 

[searanox]

Cleans - gonna go with 3, it sounds full, warm and articulate. 1 is harsh, louder but not as interesting. 2 is slightly lifeless, though the difference between 2 and 3 is small.

Rock - 3 again, it's the warmest and has the most depth of all the tones. However they all sound pretty good overall, without doing a direct comparison I'd probably have no idea they were different guitars.

Metal -1 this time, as it's the most balanced tone. 2 is good but just slightly harsh in the highs, and 3's warmth turns to mud under heavy distortion (though it could work well for some styles, just not the one you played).

 

[Omar]

Wow, all those were pretty awesome guitars. Roll dice.

 

[Clark Kent]

Haha. Let's bump for more votes!

 

[Brandon E.]

In general, I like them in order, 1, 2 and then 3. But for the cleans, I would choose guitar number 2. Overall, #1 is my kind of guitar. I have no idea the specs on these or which one is which, and I don't want to make an ass out of myself guessing which is which. Curious to find out, though.

 

[Robert W]

Whatever the first one was, I liked that the best.

 

[kev]

Number 1 all the way for the lot. Something tells me thats the balanced tone of the PRS.

I guess it goes PRS, Ernie Ball, Suhr?

 

[Clark Kent]

I'm liking the results. A few more votes and I'll share the results.

 

[Fragle]

digging nr 2 the most over here......nice and tight and great cleans. for metal, i prefered nr 1 but 2 is better overall.

 

[Wisheraser]

I liked #1 best through all amps. #2 sounded a bit harsh in the high mids and #3 sounds a bit muddy to me (almost like the strings are starting to go dead). This is really just nit picking though. None of these guitars would be a deal breaker for getting a deadly tone.

 

[Brandon E.]

Worth noting that guitar 3 is having a problem with its setup, if you listen closely in headphones or something, in the clean clip you can hear that the open B string is having problems resonating, probably action too low. Sounds really unpleasant.

 

[MatrixClaw]

The distorted sounds were fairly similar on all of them, I couldn't really choose which I liked there - But the cleans were quite different on all of them. 1 sounds simply beautiful on the cleans

 

[P-E]

I'd go with 1 as well!

 

[Clark Kent]

You guys got good ears, I'm impressed!

 

[trianglebutt]

1 is by far my favorite, the cleans are so warm and creamy. :3

 

[Ashgarth]

1 for me!

 

[Ermz]

I'm tossing up between #1 and #2. While #1 sounds richer and fuller, #2 would conceivably leave more room for other elements in a mix, and sounds like it'd be more suited to my style of balancing.

#3 is strange. A bit too full and the mutes sound off, almost like they're in the wrong place, or impeded by a floating bridge. That being said, it sounds like all 3 would lead to fairly pleasing results.

Keen to know what's what!

 

[Mago]

For my preferences #1, but #2 would also be awesome when dialed in a bit different. It's got more attack and highs, but #1 is fatter which I dig more.

#3 didn't take the cake for me, sounds more muffled and unclearer in the low mids than the other ones. also not as tight as 1 and 2. Would work better on different stuff than you played here I guess.

so, 2 the best cleans, crunch and higain 1. 2 had a bit too much highs for how you had it dialed in I guess.

 

[Clark Kent]

Okay I guess we're ready to see the results!

1) PRS Custom 24
2) Suhr Modern
3) EBMM JPXI

What do I think about these guitars? Well I tried tracking with the Suhr yesterday and it's just soooo bright we decided to use a cheap Jackson with DiMarzios instead. It was fine on my Rockerverb which is very dark sounding but through a Recto it sounded almost like a single coil guitar and the guys weren't feeling it. I dunno if it's the Aldrich pickups or simply the tone Suhr are going for. Ofcourse I'm biased towards the PRS since that's the guitar I play most of the time and I love them so I'm happy to see that most of you guys agree with me on this one. The JPXI... well what can I say. It's extremely easy to play but a very dark tone. You can see that when it's combined with the dark Rockerverb in that video, they're just not working together. I'm sure the JPXI sounds great on brighter amps though like Mesa f.ex. So far I feel like PRS is my go to guitar forever. I actually have an extra pair of PRS HFS and VB pickups so I can always put them into any guitar I like. (got them for 100€ last week)