Newb from Virginia

[Dusty Chalk]

Ola, I'm new, plan on ordering a custom Drop Top 7 (yes, I heard about the flood -- sorry, horrible -- am prepared for longer than usual build time).

Not a whole lot to say about myself. I like cats. I like space rock, and my music sounds vaguely like an americanized bastardization of Mike Oldfield's without the Celtic flavourings.

[Briggs]

Welcome to the forum Dusty!! You won't find a nicer, more helpful bunch of folks!

[dplight]

Welcome neighbor! Where in VA are you?

[Dusty Chalk]

I live down in Woodbridge, but I work downtown (DC), and I'm probably moving soon -- looking along the beltway -- Merrifield, Springfield, Alexandria. So it's easier to just say, "Northern Virginia".

And: thank you for the welcome!

[LeftAngelPlayer]

Awesome choice with the Drop Top 7! I just saw a new one go up on Ebay the other day: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TOM-ANDERSON-Drop-Top-Seven-String-2015-Deep-Ocean-Blue-with-Binding-Guitar-/161839816758?hash=item25ae67a036
Looks insane.
What specs/finish were you leaning towards?

[Dusty Chalk]

I haven't figured it out yet, that's the only reason I haven't made the initial order. Looking for advice here:

http://andersonforum.com/board/showthread.php?t=10301

H1- in the neck...that's about as far as I got, really. Lollers. SA in the middle? H-series at the bridge? ...probably. I like a super clean and extended sound, so probably should keep the levels medium to below medium. But I'm into neither the mid-forward vintage sound nor the modern scooped sound -- something in between -- so that sounds like H-series and SA-series, no? (HSH or HHH)

One of the maple necks...don't know enough about woods to know what woods will contribute to or detract from that sound.

Thanks for any advice! And thanks for the link on the 7. It's blue (minor -- I'm more into purple, black, red, green -- pretty much anything other than blue and traditional colours) and it's got a rosewood fretboard (less minor), but it's pretty close to what I want. I am not sure I want to deal with tmg-jp, though. I've bought enough guitars from Japan, recently.

Maybe I need to go into Chuck's to try a few. I'll probably get a 6 to satisfy my initial Anderson jonesing. They even have a couple purple sixes (one, a drop top with HS pickups -- what are HS pickups?).

[LeftAngelPlayer]

I'm all about purple guitars, to be sure! I think my taste in music lent itself to a MUCH easier time spec'ing my guitar and even then, it still took several dozen emails with Tom (most of them involving me asking stupid/pointless questions). Haha, my bad, should have clarified that I was sharing the link just for our visual enjoyment...I can't imagine they're marketing that guitar to many outside of Japan, with the immense import markup. Can't wait to see/hear whatever you end up choosing and best of luck on the always difficult, but often rewarding task, of finalizing that order.

[pipedwho]

I'm all about purple guitars, to be sure!
+1 :D

Low output pickups are my favourite. I also sit on the clean side of things, with occasional gain added via pedals/amp.

H1- paired with the H2 is a great match for this type of thing. An SA1 in the middle goes with that tone too.

Although, another sound that would ooze serious clean tone is the HF1- / SC1- / HF1+. Those low output HF series sound fantastic.

BTW the metal cover in the HC series (covered HF) alters the top end of the tone and makes it sound a bit more 'electric/jazzy' if that makes sense. The uncovered pickups have a slightly more raw 'open' sound.