Collings

We order these with the special option of the Adirondack “Red” Spruce top because we know that this wide-grain wood produces tone like no other top wood. It is the wood of choice on the original “Golden Age” guitars of 1934-1944, but, unlike those guitars, this is made using East Indian Rosewood for the back and sides. Like the prewar it sports grained ivoroid bindings, prewar style scalloped bracing, a herringbone top border, crosscut grained ivoroid and wood strip rosette, a tortoise style pickguard, gloss-finished all solid mahogany neck, an ebony fingerboard and bridge, a 25-1/2" scale length, and we also choose the option of the 1-3/4" nut width.

Here’s what Collings Guitars says about their OM model: “'OM' stands for ‘Orchestra Model’ but 80 years after this body shape was first designed it has become the most popular 14-fret model with fingerstyle guitar soloists who choose to play on steel strings. Yet flatpickers also find it appealing, and when the graceful cutaway is added these OMs are often used by lead players who routinely explore all 20 frets much as they would on an electric guitar.

This Orchestra Model is simple and utilitarian and yet elegant and stately at the same time.   The wood is, in our opinion, of "select" status - that Englemann top is wider at the extremes and extremely close in the middle - with a plethora of cross-silking (medullary rays) to prove it.

WAS $3295 WITH A CASH PRICE OF $3195, BUT NOW ON SALE!

Collings says:  “Collings electric guitars are built with the finest materials available and feature custom pickups from Jason Lollar.”  We’d like to add that this model is made from solid woods (good luck finding that on the better known brand), and also that it is one of the most unearthly beautiful electric semi-hollow body creatures we have ever, with our own eyes, seen.

Holy Cow – is this guitar ever striking, majestic and beautiful, or what!?   It is everything all of us fingerstyle players yearn for throughout our respective lifetimes, in a colossally colorful, prodigiously tiger-striped and figured, three-dimensional Koa back and sides guitar.  It is breathtaking!   And, these sides and back were fortuitously born with a Sitka spruce top – and not just a Sitka spruce top but in our opinion a select one that is so closely, parallel grained that there is a plethora of cross-silking (also called medullary rays) across and throughout its entire visage. 

The smallest model is a rarity among fractional size guitars: most listeners could never guess that it's not a full-size instrument unless they see it being played. While lacking the deep bass of larger guitars the tone is remarkably balanced, with adequate volume for most applications. The Collings Baby is approximately a 3/4 size version of our OM, 12 1/2 inches wide in the lower bout with a 24 1/8 inch scale, and the headstock and bridge are scaled to match. Sometimes the Baby is used as a travel guitar, but it often sees duty as a songwriter's tool, the guitar that's ready at a moment's notice and can be played while seated in any position.

'OM' stands for "Orchestra Model," but 80 years after this body shape was first designed it has become the most popular 14-fret model with fingerstyle guitar soloists who choose to play on steel strings. Yet flatpickers also find it appealing, and when the graceful cutaway is added these OMs are often used by lead players who routinely explore all 20 frets much as they would on an electric guitar. The compact shape makes the Collings OM equally easy to handle onstage or when sitting on the couch, and the relatively shallow body (barely over 4 inches deep) results in balanced tone and an immediate response.

Strikingly beautiful in its elegant simplicity, this guitar starts with the extremely dark Brazilian rosewood headstock overlay featuring the shockingly white Collings script inlaid pearl logo and the six shiny nickel plated Waverly tuners with the open-gears and butterbean buttons. The nut and saddle are bone, as are most of us.

Mahogany back and sides, a select spruce top, tortoise binding, prewar scalloped bracing, black/white wood nitrate strip rosette, tortoise style pickguard and binding, 25-1/2" scale length, gloss finished mahogany neck, 1-11/16" nut width, ebony fingerboard & bridge, and nickel Waverly tuner.

mother-of-pearl Collings logo in headstock, Gotoh tuners, Collings custom one-piece tailpiece and hard shell case.  The Collings mandolin (no matter what model) is one of the finest sounding company-made mandolins available in our entire inventory of mandolins. Its sound Willie Mays you.

It is housed in a deluxe TKL “American Vintage Series” plush-lined, retro-looking hard shell case. This model is made from exemplary East Indian rosewood on the back and sides, a select Adirondack “Red” spruce top; it has grained ivoroid binding, prewar style scalloped bracing, a herringbone top border, crosscut grained ivoroid and wood strip rosette, a tortoise style pickguard. 

The full-bodied dreadnought, with the herringbone, with the perfectly chosen woods, with the exquisite workmanship that knows no flaw, with the scalloped bracing and the sound from the commonwealth of West Heaven has been complemented with a 1 3/4" nut width.  Come to our showroom and compare this melodious monster with the other several hundred high-end acoustic guitars on display here and then you can tell us (with a straight face) that you’ll pass. We’ll see. Betcha you don’t pass. Betcha can’t stand not owning it.

East Indian Rosewood back and sides, select spruce top, grained ivoroid binding, prewar scalloped bracing, crosscut grained ivoroid and black/white nitrate strip purfling, herringbone border, crosscut grained ivoroid and wood strip rosette, tortoise style pickguard, a gloss-finished mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard and bridge, rosewood peghead overlay with mother of pearl Collings logo and a traditional diamond and square inlay, nickel Waverly tuners and hard shell case.