Boutique Guitars tend to fall into a few camps, those that recreate old classics (Nash/Dano), those that bring new ideas (Knaggs) and those that thrive to improve upon old designs (suhr). While there are a few models that tend to cross each others paths, most of them usually stick to their own camp.

Tom Anderson is one that largely builds and improves on old designs, almost every part of the guitar is "renewed", if there is a better way to do it, you can be certain that they will be interested in putting these things into their guitars.

History

Who is Tom Anderson and what is Tom Anderson Guitars (TAG). Anderson Started of as an aspiring guitarist, unfortunately due to how things are, he found it hard to survive being one. So he joined the 80's Schecter, now this is not the metal focused schecter guitars we know today, but the custom shop which was later sold to ESP.
When Schecter was sold to ESP, Tom upon receiving advise from his then boss "to go on his own", took the machines and started a parts shop in his garage. His first deal was to make pickups for early Japanese Schecter models , thereafter he sold old Schecter customers who used Schecter CS parts like Suhr (before FCS) Sadowsky, and Tyler.

Anderson would then build his reputation as one of the famous builders, however while his guitars look relatively similar to other parties out there Anderson carries a different philosophy, as builders like Suhr and Sadowsky expand and have Asian variants (MIC Suhr rasmus and MIJ Sadowsky) Anderson largely kept his shop small and went as far as almost closing it down to bring it back to just "Building guitars in his garage"

With that in mind, we move on to the guitar at hand and observe his guitar building philosophy, Today's Axe is the Drop Top Classic.

Spec Sheet:
Model - Drop Top Classic
Body Finish - Deep Tobacco Fade with Binding
Body Wood - Quilted Maple Top on Alder
Neck Wood - Hard Rock Maple, Rosewood Fretboard
Neck Finish - Matching Headstock, Satin Back
Nutwidth - 1 11/16 in
Frets - Heavy
Back Shape - Even Taper
Hardware - Chrome
Bridge - Vintage Tremolo
Pickguard - Tortoise
Pickups - M1 M1 M2
Switching - 5 Way, Add-Bridge, Kickback + VA Booster
Strings - .010-.046 Elixir strings


"Improving Everything"

Anderson guitars come with a few "default" additions, first the frets are all stainless steel, impressing even the most chinaman of people out there. The benefits of stainless steel frets? they last, for a long time. But on the side they are smoother to the touch, and look more bling to those who gaze upon it.

The guitars are also fitted with Buzz Feiten Tuning System, basically what happens is the guitars nut is adjusted to be closer to the bridge, supposedly improving the intonation for specific notes like the 3rd and 6ths. While i dont have much room to mess around with it (you need cowboy chords), lets just take it that it works for some reason.

Another feature is the neck pocket, Andersons use a Wedge pocket that has the neck and the neck pocket carved into a V slot. The argument of sorts is that, with this, the neck cannot move up and down and is more sturdy, as a result only 2 screws is needed to hold the neck into place

The other added feature to all anderson guitars is his eletronical wizardry, VA boosters (which increases the pickup output by increasing the coils inside the pickups), Kickback - Series / Parallel toggle (Only for M Series pups). This is just the few, he has other stuff like the switcheroo , B5, Vintage voicing that would give any guitar tech nightmares and a function junkie wet dreams.

With those things how does the guitar play and sound?

At first glance the Anderson is very well made, the finish is polished to a shine that is rarely seen in many guitars out there including those like FCS or even Suhr. This is the same for its satin back, with the stainless steel pups, its smooth as silk and very slippery, moving up and down is effortless, and may need getting used to. (i certainly did)

The neck itself despite its description is rather thick and feels closer to a soft V, i had to adjust my playing style a bit to suit its deeper carve (compared to the C) it is no doubt a good neck, but one that is rather alien to C and flat U shape lovers.

What was rather interesting is that the anderson has a bit of bite, the strings are not as easy to hit as my danocaster or even the huber. it plays like a strat that you need to hit hard to get the best out of it, with the action at about 1mm i can certainly feel a difference compared to my other guitars. This feels like the time i changed the gauge from my Fender from 10's to 11's, it takes a bit to get used to but once you get it, its not a problem anymore.

This kinda comes rather curious as the guitar doesnt behave like a masochist, hitting it hard makes it growl harshly, warning you not to go further, as its brighter notes becomes somewhat overpowering and its worse with OD, the attack jumps up and is in your face as ever. Almost tele like, but without the distinct tele sound, its one that can excite or frustrate those who try it.

Its a rather strange combination of sorts, a guitar that is a bit hard to the touch but likes to be treated with a softer picking style. Kinda like a girl that likes to be hit around but in bed prefers you to be gentle and slow.

Which kinda comes to the other part of this guitar, its range, the tonal range this guitar can cook up is huge. With mini humbuckers that are designed with SRV in mind, it can go from punchy strat cleans all the way to OD rock it out in a few flicks of the switches, a huge pain to record as the volume can jump up like how you use a pedal. Its not OD pedal in teh guitar, the guitar changes itself, remaining its characteristics but is more aggressive, as you can listen in the recordings, those have no pedals just the guitar going from one stage to another.

While its a superb addition, it brings some complications, its super dynamic nature means you can make a mistake in attack with certain notes sounding harsher or heavier than other guitars. Its unforgiving nature means that your tone can be all over the place and certainly took me a while to get it together.

The Drop Top Classic a guitar that takes a while to get into, not an off the shelf wonderfully playing axe this is. there's everything in there to say it will be the best made strat based guitar ever, but theres also a lot of work on the players side to coax the best sounds and utilize it to its full potential. One thing does make one wonder, why no one put this into normal production guitar specs? A mini humbucker with the added eletronics? I could certainly see the use for this in a gig situation.

Tldr:
Princess guitar that if treated with the right tender loving care, can be the best guitar ever.


pictures (i suck at photography)


Recordings

Anderson Recording List

First is Standard with the toggle down (parallel if im not mistaken)
Then its in series
[ both the first and second recording is with 3 pickups neck, middle, bridge and each is with the toggle of, on, and full power]

so it goes neck - off, neck - on, neck - full power; middle- off and vice versa

Then comes a recording of 3 guitars at neck pickup , the anderson is on Parallel and no VA boost

The last recording is my MIJ strat on neck, middle and bridge.

The clips are a bit confusing, but I hear a good variety of tones there. Should be great for blues/rock fusions.

Would love to score a pickguard with those pickups to put on my strat!

i know , i tried my best to get it right, took like 6 takes of it, i reckon a video would do better.

the pickups are something, but it does have a different tone compared to ss and humbuckers.

why so much clipping going on?
its making it sound like some ibanez RG.

its super hard to record, because the output from the "normal" position to the "full" position, differs by quite a bit. by the time it goes up my amp is overdriving, you can hear it in the second broken chord and lick (gain at 5 , volume at 3)

as a result the mic starts to clip, hence that harsh clipping you hear when it gets a bit loud. the only way i know around it is to record each setting individually and play with the input volume. but that kinda doesnt show the whole story

also the room is not well suited for recording, i had to do about 3 takes just to get hte interference out.

Recording Specs:

AMp : AC 15 normal chan (vol 3, Gain 5, Reverb 4, presence 5)
Recorded via: Blue yeti, Straight in-front of amp, Gain at 5
Input vol : vary 80%- 40% to control excess clipping
Software : Audacity

This post has been edited by +3kk!: Apr 15 2016, 10:09 PM

someone got his ac15 already. that was fast

nah overdriven != clipping.
but why are u using blue yeti mic?
rich fag sure can afford proper mic for guitar recording

huh, ive had an ac15 for a long time liao, i think 2 years dy,

well technically it is, but then it doesnt really make a diff in this case.

the blue yeti quite good lo, its not top end shure la but good enough for poverty stricken folks like me

from what i see... blue yeti is more for vocals / podcast right...
a rm300+ shure enough already...

its kinda one size fits all usb mic, but the problem is less the mic more the setting.

yeti more expensive tho

nah, can google blue yeti clipping... quite a few hits and most say for voice better only.

its not the best la i agree but i am not in thet right time to get that kinda mic

maybe after my new place la

SM57 cheap cheap and gets you amazing tone.
It's one of the few things in the guitar world thats cheap and gets you awesome results.

Not practical for me now tho, and i still need an interface.

which is why the yeti came it, usb, gaming mic and guitar mic - all in one!

maybe next year i get one