NGD... just WOW!!!

[Red_Label]

Friend at my local shop sent this Tom Anderson Drop Top home with me on Saturday. I am blown away. He's got three Drop Tops and has been raving about them for years. I always thought they looked flawless, but I've had some flawless guitars (PRS Customs, EBMM Morse Y2D, ESP Eclipses, etc) and a flawless looking/playing guitar doesn't impress me all that much any more. They're all gone. For a guitar to impress me, it's got to have TONE and mojo. It's got to inspire me deep-down. And this thing does.

The clean tones are so snappy. Strat tones seem almost 3D. Comparing it directly to my American Strat Deluxe... just isn't a fair fight. I had possession of a very nice Suhr strat several years ago with the option to keep it. But it was stiff and didn't inspire me. This thing is just magical. I played through a bunch of Satch today, running into my Option 5 Destination Overdrive pedal into my Fender Supersonic Twin and the lead tone was just liquid and "alive". Feedback was effortless through the Twin. Even my beloved LP Standard struggles more with that task. I am just blown away by this Anderson. I finally get what all the "hype" is about. Wow...

 

[LReese]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

I'd love to have an Anderson someday. Have several Suhrs though.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

It's great to play a guitar that knocks your socks off and blasts them to seldom-traveled parts of the house.

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Very nice, indeed ... and love the quilt!

 

[Red_Label]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Very nice, indeed ... and love the quilt!

I'm not normally a big quilt guy (preferring a really nice flame instead)... but yeah, this thing is a beauty for sure.


I have had just two quilt top guitars before this. Both looked, played, and sounded great I must say...

 

[Oinkus]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

I have beat on a whole bunch of Andersons at great length and they are wonderful guitars all around. There is some crazy guy around here somewhere that bought a whole bunch of them as an investment , I saw a box full of pieces and parts he had laying around was insane several sets of pups. I have Anderson pickups in my Super Strat and my Jackson RR , just about the best mass produced pickups you can buy period.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

I have beat on a whole bunch of Andersons at great length and they are wonderful guitars all around. There is some crazy guy around here somewhere that bought a whole bunch of them as an investment , I saw a box full of pieces and parts he had laying around was insane several sets of pups. I have Anderson pickups in my Super Strat and my Jackson RR , just about the best mass produced pickups you can buy period.

I'm starting to come to the same conclusion. IF I bother to keep my American Deluxe strat, I'll likely ditch the S-1 Noiseless system in there and replace with a set of Andersons. These pickups were the reason that I kept wondering yesterday "how'd they get the magic fairy dust in these things???" Just so lively and "3D" sounding.

 

[Red_Label]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Oh... and just to up the ante here... I spied this "Guitar of the Week" on the Anderson site today. STUNNING!!!

 

[Artie]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Beautiful! Forum bro Marinblues gets some nice tones out of one of these.

 

[Archer_of_Fish]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Anderson's pickups are wound on one of two old winders in their electronics room. The total number of employees at Anderson for all the jobs from front end to shipping is 14 (may be 15 now) so I am not sure calling them 'mass produced' is really accurate.

 

[Oinkus]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Swear I remembered that they upgraded to a factory ? It has been more then 5 minutes so my memory is no longer available. They surely are VERY consistent pickups , I just wish they would give a number of winds on pickups in the listing. I had it down when they used Red,Yellow and Blue for output strength. One day I will hit the lottery and get a custom Anderson right ?

 

[Red_Label]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Anderson's pickups are wound on one of two old winders in their electronics room. The total number of employees at Anderson for all the jobs from front end to shipping is 14 (may be 15 now) so I am not sure calling them 'mass produced' is really accurate.

Wow! Now I know why they're pretty slow to fill orders for new guitars. My buddy ordered his third Anderson last year and it took the better part of a year to get it. But I remember when I ordered my second PRS Custom 24 back in the late '90s, it also took the better part of a year for it to arrive. Just the name of the game with many high quality made-to-order items I guess. Well worth it in the end! If you keep it longer than it took to get it...

 

[BloodRose]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Gorgeous! Congrats!! Ive never had the honor of playing an Anderson or a Suhr. Suhrs seem to be very popular these days. I concur with what some have said. Its great to find a guitar that knocks your socks off. Personally, I have played a few PRS' and as much as everyone raves about them, I wasn't extremely impressed. Until one day I played one that just slayed me... Sadly, I don't recall the model and I think it was a special made one. But on that day, I saw what the hype was about. But I think this can apply to most brands. Diff pieces of wood can resonate with a player. Anyhow, Id love to try a Suhr and Anderson sometime. Esp with what ya'll are saying about the pups..

Rock on bro!

 

[Red_Label]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Gorgeous! Congrats!! Ive never had the honor of playing an Anderson or a Suhr. Suhrs seem to be very popular these days. I concur with what some have said. Its great to find a guitar that knocks your socks off. Personally, I have played a few PRS' and as much as everyone raves about them, I wasn't extremely impressed. Until one day I played one that just slayed me... Sadly, I don't recall the model and I think it was a special made one. But on that day, I saw what the hype was about. But I think this can apply to most brands. Diff pieces of wood can resonate with a player. Anyhow, Id love to try a Suhr and Anderson sometime. Esp with what ya'll are saying about the pups..

Rock on bro!

Totally agree that different guitars from the same manufacturer/builder can have completely different tones and vibes. My buddy (who sold me this one) owns three drop tops and loves them all. So I think with a company like Anderson, you're going to get more consistency than you are with a larger company like PRS.

Having said that, I've always thought that PRS' were TOP notch guitars. I owned a pair of CU24s with "10" tops and bird inlays in the late 90s that were the cat's meow to me for several years. They looked and played flawlessly. But one day my ears caught up to my eyes and hands and I realized that they were pretty homogenous/sterile sounding. Just no mojo in there. Despite my much increased daily playing of them because they had re-ignited my inspiration to play. It may very well have been the pickups though. I would definitely NOT go with the HFS and VB pickups if I were to ever get another PRS.

I thought the Suhr strat that I had a few years ago was pretty awesome looks-wise. But it felt stiff to me, and the tone wasn't knocking me out. But who knows... maybe it was just a stiff example of a Suhr, or maybe I just wasn't in the right place to gel with it at the time. I do know that there are a few Suhr amps that I've been lusting after for a while (Badgers and SL68) and have been very close to pulling the trigger on a few of those.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Oh... and just to up the ante here... I spied this "Guitar of the Week" on the Anderson site today. STUNNING!!!

OMG!!!!

If it plays half as good as it looks that would be an incredible guitar!

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

I owned a Grosh Bent Top Custom years ago so I get why you dig a good boutique super strat. That had a lot of great tones on tap and played like butter, I just couldn't bond with the narrow nut at the time.

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Nice, Anderson makes some niiiiiice guitars.

 

[aleclee]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

TA builds a nice guitar. They do some interesting stuff with the neck joint to maximize fit.

 

[Archer_of_Fish]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

in 2006 Tom felt that a company with 17 or 18 people making a projected 1000 guitars per year was too big. Feeling like a guitar company owner rather than a builder Tom decided to close up shop and make guitars himself, one at a time. Many of us who use his guitars talked him out doing one off customs so (after finding jobs at Suhr for a bunch of is staff) he refocused his efforts and is now doing between 700 and 800 guitars per year.

He doesn't have a factory, he has a shop that makes the instruments.

Suhr is now running a setup that is more like a factory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPwkZEOA_s4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb5bLhP6Y8c (the pickup winding machines and pickup manufacture are shown in this video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB5IxfJ9ong

 

[BloodRose]

Re: NGD... just WOW!!!

Totally agree that different guitars from the same manufacturer/builder can have completely different tones and vibes. My buddy (who sold me this one) owns three drop tops and loves them all. So I think with a company like Anderson, you're going to get more consistency than you are with a larger company like PRS.

Having said that, I've always thought that PRS' were TOP notch guitars. I owned a pair of CU24s with "10" tops and bird inlays in the late 90s that were the cat's meow to me for several years. They looked and played flawlessly. But one day my ears caught up to my eyes and hands and I realized that they were pretty homogenous/sterile sounding. Just no mojo in there. Despite my much increased daily playing of them because they had re-ignited my inspiration to play. It may very well have been the pickups though. I would definitely NOT go with the HFS and VB pickups if I were to ever get another PRS.

I thought the Suhr strat that I had a few years ago was pretty awesome looks-wise. But it felt stiff to me, and the tone wasn't knocking me out. But who knows... maybe it was just a stiff example of a Suhr, or maybe I just wasn't in the right place to gel with it at the time. I do know that there are a few Suhr amps that I've been lusting after for a while (Badgers and SL68) and have been very close to pulling the trigger on a few of those.

Yeah, that was my take on the PRS'. Felt like a nice piece, but didnt have much mojo. Cept that one. It just oozed mojo.
Alot of LPs are like that too. That's why I bought the wine red one I have. Wanted a black one, but the guitar itself had soul. It had nicer sustain and I can feel the whole guitar vibrate in my hands, like its alive.