Born of Drop Top heritage,

                                                          Drop Top Classic

offers its eye-popping gifts accompanied with the class of a classic pickguard, hence the name Drop Top Classic. 

But its name not only denotes a look rooted in tradition but in its intrinsic sound as well. Yes, this classy guarded guitar not only delivers classic good looks but the anatomy of the actual pickguard itself creates a more "Classic" tone—a tone to certainly please a connoisseur of the classics.

Drop Top Classic announces itself with a radiant book-matched flame or quilted maple, koa or walnut top that is actually bent (or "dropped") over a carefully chosen tone-wood body-back to create a smooth and comfortable, swooping forearm contour—and it does it all in keeping with the traditional of pickguard styling.

Since 1991 Drop Top Classic has been the fancy, classic "S" to own.  Before this time nothing like it existed. You could say, it was an inspired revelation that started a joyous revolution—of guitars that is.

But we certainly could not stop there. 

Though the years, as we began to unlock the secrets of Drop Top tonalities and the vast richness lying within, we applied this depth of understanding to the realm of the Drop Top Classic.

Now, to support the beauty of your Drop Top Classic, are four body-back tone-wood choices—two of which are very "classic" and two with which you can step humbucker tones forward.

"Classic" wood choices:

• Alder is our most popular backing wood, for Drop Top Classic as its inherent lower-mid bump and pleasant upper-mid dominance rings out with familiar classic “S” timbre.  Alder likes to support the lower end of S-style single coil sized pickups—helps in getting big single coil sounds.  It also handles humbucker pickups well making its low-mid character known. 
  
  
• Swamp Ash is the much more ethereal "classic" backing wood.  An open and soft midrange defines its attendance while deep, rich and lush low-lows boom out and underpin every note. All this is enlivened by softly sparkling and supremely musical highs. The added bonus of swamp ash as a backing wood is that the maple (or other exotic top) top actually presents this definitive Swamp Ash tone with a bit more authority, so its sweet subtilties can easily be presented live or alone with you.
  

altered "Classic" backing-wood choices:

• Basswood: to keep the classic vibe but shift focus to midrange humbucker frequencies in a soft, even, and flowing manner, basswood is the choice.  Perhaps most recognized as the sound of an 80's and 90's humbucker in a 25 1/2-inch scale length guitar—its definitive nature is full flowing, focused mids.  Everything this wood touches blooms with rich, lush, even-balanced midrange tonality.
  

• Mahogany: predominated by dominate and aggressive midrange for days, best defines this backing-wood.  Humbuckers roar to life under its reign and offer an overall powerful experience.  An extremely popular choice—especially for those players who enjoy an HSH pickup configuration.
  

Paring wonderful body woods with the world fastest and easiest playing necks just seems to make sense to us.  To strap on a light weight Drop Top Classic, wrap you hand around...feel the smoothness of the neck... the guitar just seems to take you away. Now, that is what we are talking about.

Neck Wood for Drop Top Classic—your choices are:

• Maple with Rosewood fingerboard (most popular)
  
  
• Maple
  
  
• Chocolate Maple
  
  
• Rosewood
  
  
• Maple with Pau Ferro fingerboard

The entire line of Anderson pickups have been redesigned to support a more soulful & sweet experience than ever before and all are available for implantation into any Drop Top Classic.

All of our progressive and simple-to-operate electronic controls are available for Drop Top Classic

 

Hollow be the name of:  Hollow Drop Top Classic

Hollow Drop Top Classic:  Our wonderful, solid-body Drop Top Classic can also be had with hollow sound chambers.  This hollow-bodied version utilizes visually undetectable sealed chambers inside the very same outside form.  This magnificent model is known as Hollow Drop Top Classic.

Why hollow?: The first and foremost reason to strap on a Hollow Drop Top Classic is weight reduction.  Our regular solid-body Drop Top Classic is considered a lightweight solid guitar in its own right.  But If an extremely lightweight, soulful instrument is required, Hollow Drop Top Classic is the resolution.  It almost floats on your shoulder all night long.  You may forget you are wearing it.

Sonically, every guitar model responds slightly differently to hollow chambering.  Drop Top Classic's lay-up of of a beautiful hardwood top and tone-wood back, naturally flows in rhythm with the hollow body.  Many players choose Hollow Drop Top Classic as their number one guitar for its sound as well as its lighter weight. 

Hollowing gives Hollow Drop Top Classic more percussive bloom ("S"-style "quack") to each note.  What this means is a slightly softer touch to the attack of each note—each pick stroke.  Mid frequencies are lightly softened while top and bottom frequencies stretch farther in each direction.  The overall experience is one of a quacker quack while the hardwood top makes sure you are still there to dominate. 

Deciding Factor • choose:

• Drop Top Classic if you want  classic "S" dominance.  On stage, it's voice will be more than merely noticed.
• Hollow Drop Top Classic if you want the same wonderful sound with a touch more "quack" of soft attack in a guitar you can hold all night long and hardly notice anything but the music.

 

Drop Top Classic

choices at a glance 

BODY TYPE:	Solid Body   (traditional) Hollow Body (visually undetectable hollow body chambers)
SCALE LENGTH	Traditional (25 1/2-inch) Shorty       (24 3/4-inch)
BODY WOOD:	Quilt or Flame Maple Top on Alder Back Quilt or Flame Maple Top on Swamp Ash Back Quilt or Flame Maple Top on Basswood Back Quilt or Flame Maple Top on Mahogany Back Walnut Top with any above mentioned backing woods Koa Top with any above mentioned backing woods
NECK WOOD:	Maple with Rosewood Fingerboard Maple Chocolate Maple Indian Rosewood Maple with Pau Ferro Fingerboard
HEADSTOCK COLOR:	Natural Satin Natural Satin with Vintage Tint—n/a Rosewood or Chocolate Match Body Color (fingerboard necks only) Natural Gloss Black
NECK BACK FINISH:	Natural Satin Natural Satin with Vintage Tint (n/a with match headstock, Rosewood or Chocolate)
NECK BACKSHAPE:	Even-Taper—slim backshape Even-Taper +.030, +.050, +.070, +.100—increased depth Happy Medium Happy Medium +.030, +.050—increased depth 60’s Vibe 60’s Vibe +.020—increased depth 50’s V—Small 50’s V—Large
NUT WIDTH:	1 11/16-inch 1 5/8 -inch
FRETS:	Heavy—Exclusive Anderson Stainless Steel Medium—Exclusive Anderson Stainless Steel Low Rise—Exclusive Anderson Stainless Steel Small—Exclusive Anderson Stainless Steel Jumbo—Exclusive Anderson Stainless Steel
BRIDGE:	Fixed Bridge Vintage Tremolo Floyd Rose Locking Tremolo
TUNING GEAR:	Split Shaft (std with Fixed and Floyd Rose Bridge) Locking (std with Vintage Tremolo)
PICKGUARD:	White Black Pearl White Aged White Mint White Tortoise Shell
HARDWARE COLOR:	Chrome Gold Black
NECK PICKUP:	Any S-Series Single Coil Sized M1 or M1- (M-Series) Any H-Series Full-Sized Humbucking
MIDDLE PICKUP:	Any S-Series Single Coil Sized M1or M1- (M-Series)
BRIDGE PICKUP:	Any S-Series Single Coil Sized Any H-Series Full-Sized Humbucker M2 or M3 (M-Series)
SWITCHING:	5-Way Add-Bridge w Split + VA Boost 5-Way Add-Bridge 5-Way Add-Bridge w Splitter B5—split 1-4 (no split on bridge p/u alone) Master Split 5-Way Add-Bridge w Kickback (M-series only) 5-Way Add-Bridge w Kickback + Boost (M-series only) Switcheroo Switcheroo + VA Boost 5-Way with Push/Pull—for 2 pickups 5-Way with Push/Pull + VA Boost—for 2 pickup 3-Way 3-Way + VA Boost
PICKUP COVERS:	VA & SC-Series only—Coffee Dipped, White or Black HC-series—nickel, raw nickel, gold, black
STRING GAUGE:	Your Choice—Elixir® with NANOWEB® Coating
FINISH:	See Drop-Down Color List That Corresponds to Your Body Wood Choice on the Guitar Gallery Page