After about 20+ yrs of waiting, working on my 1st Anderson spec

[gibson5413]

Went with S Pro Am.

That surf green is really going to pop with the chocolate maple neck. 3 of my 6 TAGs have the chocolate maple and I love them!!

[robertmu]

Beautiful guitars! Thanks for sharing. Love that orange/choc maple combo!

[gibson5413]

I love them! I have had about 15 different people that have asked for dibs on the orange Pro Am if I ever sell it. My answer is the same every time...just order your own because mine is going nowhere!!

[robertmu]

Still toying with pickup options. Anyone have any thoughts on rings vs. no rings in terms of the effect on the tone?

[pipedwho]

Still toying with pickup options. Anyone have any thoughts on rings vs. no rings in terms of the effect on the tone?

For me, the tonal effect of rings vs direct mount is so minimal (if anything) that I would just go with what you prefer the look of. There are far greater differences caused by pickup height adjustments, nickel or brass pickup covers, cable capacitance, and of course the model of the pickup itself.

Others may have more sensitive ears, but the 'stiffness/directness' that people supposedly hear for direct mount is completely inaudible to me. I can hear all sorts of other tonal effects due to some of the things as mentioned above, but direct vs ring mount isn't one of them. Naturally YMMV.

It's a hard choice, the PQ1 in cream would probably look great without ring, but the black fibre bobbin H series look better with black pickup rings IMO, and I'd go with a cream pickup ring to match the PQ1.

If you're going for a HF series in the bridge, I wonder if Tom makes them with a plastic cream pickup cover with the little 'A' logo on it. That would look pretty with a matching cream ring

Black pickups for both might look cool too if you like the black/surf contrast.

[tom]

i think there is a little confusion about what is meant by direct mounted pickups. when we direct mount, no ring, the pickup is still shock mounted, rubber under the pickup and under the screw head.so the sound is insignificantly different than a ring. some used to rigidly mount pickups to the wood, and that would affect the sound more dramatically, and contribute to microphonics. we have not offered that method.