Anderson Guitars

[paydirt]

What do you guys think will happen to the price of Tom Anderson guitars now that he is scaling back to just himself. I'm tempted to pick one up while I still can. I think that the new ones he builds himself will go way up in price, but I'm not 100% sure what to think about the price of the old ones. Atomic Jeff ought to be sitting pretty. Anyone have any thoughts?

[NITEFLY182]

Anderson guitars are great but they are pushing the limit of what people will pay for a strat. There are several tiers of strat builders. Fender itself fits into the lowest of them with the generic strat made by minimum wage employees. These fall into the under $1500 category. Then come the Suhr and the Andersons and the fancy strats. Flame tops, pretty finishes, etc. $1500-$3000. Then come the elite strats that you dont really see but that people talk about. Tyler makes these as well as a company I don't remember that makes $6000 strats. If Anderson pushes his luck and jumps into this tier, he wont be able to compete. At that price, people want a guitar made by a one eyed crazy man in a special secret workshop. They want the Dumble of strats. Although Anderson may be a one-man operation now, he still has a reputation as a "production boutique." My guess is that an attempt to bump the price of a drop top to $3500-$4000 will be met with minimal sales. At that point people want builder Mojo and I don't think Anderson can offer that.

[Eric Dahlberg]

My mahogany body Drop-Top Classic is the first one I grab for a gig or session, it's the ultimate do-all guitar. That said, the Suhr Custom Classic is the best strat I've ever played, far better than my friend's 1961 Fender or any of the Custom Shop Fender's I've tried.