Cobra S

[schofnsteen]

Thinking of purchasing a new one.This is crazy but can you pull off a Les Paulish sound?I'm tired of the same ole stuff.I had a drop top classic for some time.Are they very similar in tone?

[LearnedHand]

IMHO the Cobra S is more of a hot-rod strat. I consider my Cobra-S my "swiss army knife" guitar.

[spitalny]

I have a Cobra Special "S" with M1 M1 M2 pickups. To me, it is more Strat-like that les paul like. it is a nice guitar!

[akivisuals]

So then most of you would consider the Cobra S to be more akin to a "super strat" than a LP even with the short scale and mahogany/maple? Is the regular Cobra more LP-like or do you have to go to the Atom to get LP sounding tones.

[pipedwho]

It's half way between a Strat and an LP. I can get some very Gibsonesque tones out of mine, while at the same time, it does the heavy strat thing pretty well too.

My Drop Top gets much closer to Strat territory than the Cobra S. But, the Cobra S is more punchy and has much more midrange than a Strat - which are things I associate with a Gibson.

[spitalny]

my Cobra S special is made with a primavera body and a primavera neck with a rosewood fret board. It has a lot of bite, much more than my TA classic. The middle/bridge position is surprisingly strat-like. To my ear, it sounds very strat like in some 5-pos settings, but, never sounds very Gibson sounding. It is a very useable guitar capable of many sounds, and I like the short scale neck...all in all a very interesting guitar. IMHO it is really its own thing.

[dannopelli]

If you do a search of Les Paul on this forum you'll find several threads. In general, many of the folks here own an LP or two or three. I am one of them. And in general all will state that nothing sounds like an LP.

My Cobra S M1 M1 M3 gets GREAT rocking sounds. But it is not an LP.

So if you mean, can you get really thick crunchy sounds? Sure. To my ear better than an LP. But just like a PRS Singlecut does not sound like an LP neither does a Cobra.

[Eric Pykala]

I've been looking around for what LearnedHand calls his "swiss army knife" guitar too, and it all seems to lead to the Cobra S for me. The body shape and scale length draw me to this. I know nothing sounds like a LP in most LP owners ears, but in this case close would be good enough. The fact it will still do stratty tones makes me think this is the one. However, I've never had a chance to play one, so I'm counting on your collective experience to guide me in the right direction. The only other shortscale I'm considering is the PRS SC245, which I feel gets darn close to the LP thing, but pretty far from the strat side (by way of disclosure, I've been a PRS guy since before the first factory, and was Paul's first Canadian rep). However, since I got my first TAG, I've been spoiled by the build quality and feel. I'm a guy who lives to play live, and sometimes it would be nice to just bring one guitar instead of the 2-3 I usually carry. Closer to a strat is where I want to end up, so is the Cobra S the right TAG for me?-Eric

[dannopelli]

Got to say my Cobra S is my "Swiss Army Knife/Desert Island" guitar.