Here's a beautiful Custom Classic - according to the etched neckplate, no. 137, which places it at roughly around 1997-1998 era, first or second year of production. Unfortunately the original owner lost the spec sheet and Suhr has lost all their records for the pre-2000 era due to a computer glitch IIRC, but you're more than welcome to contact John or the guys directly to verify authenticity. It's been lightly modded but is mostly original - I've listed out the upgrades (and some extra parts I'll include with the guitar) underlined below.
Specs:
- Custom Classic /w slight heel contour; Swamp ash body, 3-ply tortoiseshell pickguard, trans Mary Kaye blonde finish (as with most Suhrs, it's an insanely thin poly finish that's smooth as glass - you can even make out the texture of the grain lines through it). I can't remember the exact weight but it's probably around 3.5-3.75kg at the most.
- 25.5" scale satin-gloss finished maple/maple neck, 22 jumbo nickel silver frets. I'd say frets are at about 80% - no major grooves or otherwise. Truss rod is straight as an arrow - low low low action! Neck contour is a really comfortable medium/thin C-shape, and with the satin finish it's a joy to play. I'm not exactly sure if it's a compound radius, but the neck feels really flat throughout and chording at the upper frets is quite comfy.
- Buzz Feiten Tuning System (no logo on the back of the headstock, but it came with the BFTS paperwork and I've confirmed with Noel and John that early guitars have the system even if they don't have the logo). Sperzel locking tuners.
- Calibrated set of Bare Knuckle Irish Tour pickups wired (1vol/1tone) to a Suhr BPSSC (BackPlate Silent Single-Coil system) for grinding-gain-to-shimmering-clean hot vintage strat toan with virtually no noise at all. If you know BKP pickup quality, you'll know how good these are, and the BPSSC is amazing at cancelling any 60-cycle hum while retaining all the dynamics and characteristics of a true SC pickup. No batteries required at all, too!
- Gotoh 1055 trem with steel saddles, steel block and 5 Raw Vintage Tremolo springs added for maximum resonance/sustain. Combined with the lightweight swamp ash body, this gives the guitar pretty damn good acoustics - unplugged, it's pretty loud and punchy, and plugged in it's even better. The trem is really smooth and the bar has an adjustable collet so you can customize just how it hangs. I'll even throw in a Tremol-No I have lying around if you feel like you'd like a blocked trem better - just let me know.
- Misc: New parchment Allparts Strat knobs and switch tip, chrome Schaller strap locks, side input jack. Currently strung up with Curt Mangan Pure Nickel .10-.48s, but they're pretty old - I'll throw in a couple extra packs. I have two new additional pickguards cut specially for this guitar by Suhr that I'll include with it as well (thanks to a small snafu in their orders department when they sent me the wrong color) - one parchment 3-ply and another pristine tort guard.
Comes with trem bar, bridge adjustment allen key, truss rod adjustment wrench, and slightly cosmetically beat-up G&G Vintage form-fit case with plush blue lining. The case latches are fairly corroded but still work fine structurally.
This is a 16+ year-old guitar, and it's in pretty clean shape for its age. There are a few minor surface scuffs and indents, the prerequisite tiny finish stress cracks at the neck pocket, as well a couple very small patches where the finish has checked, but overall it's in great cosmetic condition without any major problems.
Here's some old pictures from when the old knobs/pickups/straplocks/backplate cover were still on it. I'll get some more updated ones in when I have time, but if you're genuinely interested let me know and I can take more detailed shots.
Price is set at $2950 FIRM, which I think is fair given the provenance of this guitar and the price of the pickup + BPSSC upgrade - I'll guarantee that this is one of the best Strats you'll ever play, made by one of the best guitar builders in the world.
Feel free to text me at 9 7 three 0 2 six 0 8.