Anderson Hollow Cobra

Mine was made in April of 2004 and was Anderson's guitar of the week. The color is listed as burnished orange burst but I have to say I don't really see anything more than a hint of orange in the brown. It is a gorgeous guitar and has natural binding. The back of the guitar is a stained brown mahogany. The neck is beautifully finished with a silky feel and what is the best neck shape and feel I have ever encountered. It feels like it was custom made for my hands. The frets are not any standard shape and size I am familiar with, but it plays beautifully with the perfect combination (for me, at least) of ease and precision, along with a great sense of digging in when appropriate. A five way switch controls the most unique aspect of this guy: dual mini humbuckers. This is a very versatile and unique sounding guitar. It has the warmth of a great humbucker and yet this incredible clarity. The #4 position of the switch is for the neck p.u. as a single coil, which is a little too light and wispy sounding for me, and #2 is both pickups in single coil. I am probably going overboard in the description, but this really is an extraordinary guitar. If you would like further info, you can see it and the specs at http://www.andersonguitars.com/weekly.html. The pictures and description are of this guitar.

I already touched on the sound. It is very rich and articulate, simultaneously. I own a high end stereo/home theater store and tend to be pretty sensitive to sound. This is amazing and is totally unique among the fifteen or so guitars I own. I have heard the Cobra compared to a Les Paul, but that is not really an appropriate comparison for this one, particulary with the mini humbuckers. It does clean, shimmery stuff extraordinarily well. I often finger pick and it is gorgeous used that way with some subtle stereo chorus (Carl Martin). Turn up the gain and it does blues stuff really well. The major limitation is that it in no way sounds like either a strat or a tele, although the basic body shape is tele like. Not a great choice for heavier distortion type stuff. It is entirely appropriate to own this and a Les Paul for a heavier sound. Effects wise, I use an Xotic Effects RC clean boost, the new TC Electronics VPD1 overdrive, Carl Martin chorus and compressor, and a Lexicon MPX-1 for reverb and time based effects. The usual amp setup is a stereo rig with a Savage Rohr 15 and a Bogner Shiva. I have heard Andersons criticized for being a little sterile sounding and the Anderson Classic strat I owned guilty of that. This Cobra is not. Although it can give you a beautifully clean sound, there is a visceral element that the Classic could never touch.

The fit and finish were superb. I normally am not crazy about a flashy guitar, especially quilting, but this is elegant as opposed to gaudy. I love the looks. The only issue I have regards grounding. I sometimes get a low level hum that goes away when I apply pressure to the strings or touch the bridge. My Anderson Classic did that as well and I never figured out why. It is not terribly bothersome, but I would certainly prefer that it wasn't there. The nut and frets were absolutely perfect. It makes the fretwork on my Gibson CS-336 look almost amateurish. I am deducting a point for the grounding issue. In fairness I should say that I haven't pursued getting it addressed. I did take it back to the shop where I purchased it and it was barely noticeable there so I suspect there is something about my setup at home that contributes to it.

Everything seems very well done. It holds a setup better than any guitar I have ever owned. I live in Kansas City where the summers are hot and humid and the winters cold and dry. I don't gig but anything can break and would never gig without a backup under any circumstances.

My limited contact with Anderson was very satisfactory, but I have little to base a rating on so I will pass on this one. I will say that my dealer, Mass Street Music in Lawrence Kansas, is superb. Always willing to work with you in terms of defining your needs and finding a solution. Also very patient with a customer (that would be me) who can get a little obssessive at times. Thanks, Chris.

If lost, I would order another exactly like it. Other guitars include a Gibson CS-336, Hamer Monaco Elite, Hamer Newport Pro Custom, Hamer Studio, Guild X170 Manhattan, Heritage 575, Trussard Rustcaster, Yamaha, SA-2200, Grosh strat, Huss and Dalton acoustic and a few other odds and ends. There are a couple of guitars on this list that I like as well as the Cobra, but none I like better.

Made in '98 in California, USA. Tele style body. 22 fret standard Cobra neck w/Madagaskar rosewood fingerboard. Medium frets. Quilted maple over chambered mahogony body. Hum-hum config. HO1- and HO1+ pickups. Five way blade switch with positions 2 & 4 splitting coils of respective pickup. One volume and one tone control. Tone control pulls out to give both pickups in single coil mode. L.R. Baggs piezo bridge with 3 way toggle to select magnetic pickups, piezo, or both. There is also a blend/volume knob depending on where the toggle is set. The guitar is wired with a mono jack and a stereo jack for sending the magnetic pickups and the piezos to seperate amps. Came with a 25ft. stereo cable.

This guitar has tons of great tones regardless of what style of music you play. The bridge pickup has the midrange punch of a Les Paul with a little more in the highs, a bit more complex. The neck pickup is warm and creamy with great sustain but can also be sweet and articulate when you turn up the tone and play clean. The single coil sounds are great too. Doesn't have the twang of a good Strat but it's a good sound all it's own. My only gripe is the drastic drop in output when switching from hum to single. I guess that's the nature of the two different pickups. The piezo bridge sounds pretty much like every other one I've heard, which is okay. Beautifully installed though.

This is where you get your money's worth when you buy a Tom Anderson guitar. Everything is perfect. Action, fit, finish, construction, the most finely finished neck I've ever felt, immaculate fretwork, everything perfect. Don't believe it? Try one sometime!

I don't have any doubts about this guitar's durability but to be honest I pamper mine obsessively. I do know for a fact that the finish is tough, I've had the guitar for two years now and there are no scratches on it, not even on the back!

Service was great at both the dealer and in dealing with Anderson Guitarworks directly. Their representative was very helpful when I was contemplating options. I was told the guitar would take 6 months to build and deliver. I got it in 5 months. That was a pleasant suprise!

Before I settled on this guitar I was looking at a lot of high end guitars. PRS, Hamer, Gibson, G & L, etc. What really drew me to the Cobra aside from it's incredible build quality is it's versatility. A lot of great tones from one great guitar. Sorry, I'm gushing I know. Try one out and think about what you get in a Gibson or a PRS for the same money. Name recognition? Street cred? Something in common with your favorite guitarist? That's about it.

my hollow cobra is a 2000 model, made on 3/11/00 in the morning, in newbury park, california. it is a 22-fret guitar with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard on a 24-3/4" scale length with anderson's pyramid-profiled heavy frets. the body is one piece of ultra-light honduran mahogany in the back and an exceptional quilted maple top that has been dropped or bent over the mahogany body. the body has internal tone chambers that reduce the weight, but also add overtone content, top end, and bottom end to the tone. the chambers also soften the midrange quite a bit.
there are three controls on the guitar--a master volume, a master tone, and volume control for the acoustic l.r. baggs x-bridge on the guitar. there are two switches--a regular five-way switch for selecting pickups, and a three-way toggle for selecting between the instrument's magnetic pickups, x-bridge, or both. see my review on the anderson cobra to get an idea of how the wiring is set up--bear in mind that mine is not stock.
pickups are two humbuckers--an HO1- in the neck position and an H2+ in the bridge position. see my review on the pickup itself or my review of the anderson cobra--i have an almost identical solid cobra--for more information on the H2+. the HO1- is altogether softer in response and has a little more top end than the H1- i have my solid cobra. it's a more vintage tone, though it's anderson's take on the vintage tone as opposed to being a duplicate of, say, old PAF's. of course, there is also the acoustic x-bridge.
electronics are passive, save for the electronics for the x-bridge, which are active. the l.r. baggs system also comes with their control-x circuitry, which allows you to use the active electronics ONLY with the x-bridge, so the electric sound remains unaltered.
finish is a beautiful transparent plum, which is a darker stain than the cajun red i have on my soild cobra. the figure of the maple isn't as pronounced on this guitar for that reason, but it's beautiful just the same. body style is a single-cutaway style.
other details? the guitar has a fixed bridge with strings through the body, as well as anderson-branded gotoh split-shaft tuners. the neck shape is the standard cobra contour. oh, and you get the wonderful buzz feiten tuning system.
the guitar comes with a G&G hardshell case, which redefines the word form-fitting. it's got a crushed velvet interior, and is a wonderful addition to the guitar. plus, you get a free T-shirt or strap when you fill out the warranty card on the guitar.
as far as features go, i'd say the guitar has a lot, but, more importantly, it has all the features you need.

i play rock/pop/funk stuff, and i'm using the hollow cobra with a bogner ecstasy 101B head, and i'm waiting on a bogner straight-front 412 cabinet with vintage 30's. the hollow cobra does everything i want it to do, and then some--it's a slightly different beast than the cobra i had, but for what i need, it's fantastic.
the guitar isn't at all noisy--anderson goes through a lot of steps to make sure that the guitar is well-shielded and quiet.
i've already described the cobra tone in another review, so let me just contrast the hollow cobra to the solid cobra. the hollow cobra has a lot more top-end spank to it, and the midrange is a lot softer. bass is a little more pronounced on the hollow cobra, as well. overtone content is more pronounced on the hollow version, as well, though with a mahogany/maple combination, you're still not talking about the abundance that you get with, say, alder or swamp ash. this guitar is more scooped in the mids than my solid cobra. through the bogner, this is a great match.
tone is subjective, and i obviously i like the tone.

when it comes to build quality, anderson is as good as it gets.
everything i said about the solid cobra applies here.

i don't think the hollow tone chambers are going to make any difference in durability, unless you make a habit of bashing your guitars.
everything i said about the solid cobra applies here. i wouldn't gig without a backup as a rule, but if i had to play just one guitar, this could very well be it.

i have dealt with anderson on countless occasions, and they always treat me like a member of the family when i drop by the shop. all of the guys in the shop are ultra-friendly, and both laurie and rachel are great, as well.
the bottom line is that they stand behind their product 100%.

i've been playing 16 years, and i own two other andersons--a solid cobra and an alder classic. i also have a bogner ecstasy 101B amp, a soldano hot rod 50 head, and have owned other things in the past, most notably a mesa tremoverb head and recto 412 cabinet, which i recently sold because my tonal needs and preferences were changing.
if the guitar were stolen or lost, i could get another one--tom anderson and company have such incredible consistency that i'm sure that i could get another one just as good as this guitar or better.

1995 Hollow Cobra in transparent black with a quilt maple top. Standard Cobra neck profile. Heavy frets. Buzz Feiten Tuning System retrofitted by Anderson Shop. H01- neck pickup,HO2+ bridge. Grover split-shaft tuners. Gold Hardware. The tone pot has a push-pull for splitting both PU's in the middle position of the 5 way selector. Chambered mahogany body, mahogany neck w/Madagascar rosewood board. 24" 3/4 in. scale on the neck lenght (like a Gibson).

Some reviewers have compared the Cobra series to Les Pauls. I would have to say that my Hollow Cobra is closer to a Les Paul Junior than a Les Paul standard, sonically. The big maple cap on a Standard gives it an extended treble range which the Cobras dont have. They are warm, fat guitars. But with none of the "mud" of Les Pauls. Way more articulate and alive sounding. My old Les Pauls sounded like blunt instruments by comparison.
Comparing my Hollow to a solid body Cobra (tried about 5 of them before getting the Hollow). I would say the Hollow has more highs and lows, but less mids, as one would expect from this body design. The Hollow isnt as effective at high gain tones as the solid Cobra. It can still rock out, but the Hollow would be the better choice for lower gain styles like blues and rootsy rock. As a matter of fact when I played it thru a 6V6 amp with a Weber P12Q I got one of the best blues tones I've heard in 30 years of playing. That fat, "woooing", sucked-mid bite just screamed "The Blues"!

The neck - The satin finish on the neck is the best I've ever felt. Feels more like a "half-gloss" to me. Whoever came up with the mixture they use must have done alot of research. It really feels like I'm touching oiled, polished wood. I much prefer it to other satin finish necks I've tried that have a more "powdery" feel (i.e. PRS CE models). The Feiten Tuning is a thing of subtle beauty. Chords sound so "right". Once you sit down and listen to it for a while it will be hard to go back to standard tempered guitars. The Cobra neck has a bit more meat on it than their usual Strat-style guitars. The "rolled" fingerboard edges and the unique feel of their satin finish makes the neck just melt in my hand. The pyramid-shaped "heavy" frets took a little getting used to. They have actually helped the precision of my fingering. They are great for bends. A little bumpy for things like sliding octaves.

The Hollow Anderson's are a little fragile. They dont take as well to body bumps and dents as solid body guitars.

Some have critiqued Anderson guitars as sounding too pristine and sterile. That could never be said of the Cobra series. My favorite feature of the Hollow Cobra is that it has "character". By that I mean it has a distinctive tone and response. Warm, fat, slightly hollowed mids, yet resonant, detailed, and alive. A very unique sound and vibe to the Hollow Cobra. Not a really versatile guitar but I've never heard another guitar with a tone like this. I am fairly ruthless with my gear. If I find one thing that bugs me, its gone. But the Hollow Cobra is on of the best guitars I've played in 30 years of playing. This guitar and I are going to be making music together for a long time to come. I find it a vastly superior axe to the many nice vintage pieces I've owned over the years. Congratulations to Anderson guitars for electing to create a very unique guitar, rather than their usual do-everything Strat variations.

I purchased my Anderson Hollow Cobra from Pontiac Music and Sound in Waterford, Michigan. The guitar has a mahogany body with a beautiful flamed maple top with one of the best looking cherry sunburst finishes I have ever seen. The pickups have chrome pickup covers that are among the most cosmetically appealing covers available. This instrument has a mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard. The fret work is a work of art. No flaws.

I've tried many hollow instruments and hands down, this Anderson sounds full, rich and it cuts through any type of mix. The pickups are Anderson HO1- and HO1+. Out of all other manufacturers stock pickups, Andersons sound the best. you can hear all the work that went into these pickups. This guitar also has a push/pull tone control to split the humbucker in position 3. I've used this guitar for many applications during recording and it truly enhances any style of music I'm working on.

Fit & Finish was flawless. Alot of time and care went into the construction of this guitar. But, it's an Anderson and that means one thing; Perfection.

I've had the guitar well over a year and it seems to get better sounding as time goes by. It is aging very well. I could depend on this guitar for just about any musical situation I get involved in.

Customer support is more like becoming a member of the Anderson family. I've been treated with the utmost respect. I wish other companies would learn from Anderson's customer support.

I've been playing Anderson guitars and Mesa/Boogie Amps exclusively for about three great years. I'm happy to say that there is no need for me to even look at other guitars.