is this weird

[slowburn]

some of my favorite guitarists that influenced me as a youth, including slash & santana had thick distorted tones helped along by mahogany/maple cap, short scaled guitars.

well I've hated the way every prs and lespaul I've ever picked up has sounded. they've been too muddy for me. maybe it's because I've always played strat styled guitars.

*the one hollow cobra I've played was another story, granted it was hollow, so that probably eased off the fundamental, but I digged that one.*

it seems that my preference is an alder body in the 25 1/2" scale length (with single coils). now I know that a lot of the tone is in the way a player plays and stuff, so I'm not comparing the way I sound on a les paul to the way slash sounds on a les paul, etc... but I still find this strange.

you would think I'd be playing a short scaled mahogany/maple capped axe. has anyone else experience this?

[jimmieb]

It's not weird, but rather your style or your "personal tone signature". I'm sure you can get a vast tonal range from an Anderson alder guitar. My experience with Anderson is that one guitar can cop a wide range of the tonal spectrum. They seem to have a root type of tonal signature, the with the switch of the pick up selector a new tonal palette appears. Factor in different pick attack, bending technics, left hand pressure on frets, bone marrow density in the fingers and the amount of muscle mass...(I was actually joking but it probably has some effect) and you get your own tonal reaction to a guitar.
Still there is something about the quality or design that lends an Anderson to sound so amazing no matter how you play it. Probably the greatest example a personal touch to playing has to go to Jeff Beck. Of all players, his fingers, attack, or some other factor create a tone that is so different it's just not duplicated... at least I've never heard anyone duplicate it. You hear something Jeff Beck's played and to my ears I always ask, How does he get his guitar to sound like that?" He's a Martian or Vulcan or something, no human can make a guitar sound like that.
Simply put I usually like my Cobra for fat distorted chordal stuff and some solo stuff (but it easily gets lost in the mix), and my Drop Top for solo work and clean stuff. Still they seem to cover a great deal of similar tonal ground, either that or I'm too lazy to switch guitars...

Jimmie B

PS I think IMHO that Paul's do sound muddy and PRS can sound bad with certain pick-up selection. Maybe not bad but nothing like the other settings. For example the Custom 22 with Artist II pu's, I don't like the two hums on(Muddy) or the bridge pu split (too brittle).