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COLLINGS GUITARS
ill Collings loves the guitar, not playing the instrument, but he is consumed with the design and construction of the guitar. Satisfied with not just building a good guitar, he is committed to building the best instruments on the planet. As a child he built cigar box guitars with rubber band strings. He built his first guitars thirty years ago in a spare room in his apartment. Growing up in the mid-west he left for California, but never made it past Texas, settling in its capital, Austin, where he and his employees just moved into his new shop. Known for his outstanding flat top guitars, his heart has always been in building the ultimate archtop. To name a few, Bill Frisell and Lyle Lovett are some of the artists that play Collings guitars. I met with Bill at his office in suburban Austin where (when he isn't thinking about the guitar) he is building, from the frame up, one of the coolest convertible roadsters this writer has ever seen.

pressboard guitars from Sears. But, when I saw a good one, it was like, wow, this is the epitome of a guitar.

by Joe Barth

I wanted to take that older archtop and add more modern acoustical innovations to give it an even smoother sound. Rather than being designed to punch through an orchestra, have it produce some sweet, warm notes. That is what got me going.

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JB: You are a long time builder of flat top guitars, what first intrigued you about building archtops? BC: I built my first archtop in 1976. A guy brought an 18 inch D'Aquisto into my shop and I was hooked. It was the smoothest, creamiest, warmest acoustic sounding archtop I had heard up to that point. I also saw a lot of D'Angelicos and Strombergs that I liked. The art in it always intrigued me. Of course, the art of building flat tops intrigued me as well. But, the JB: Are you always on the quest for the perfect wood? art in making an archtop. It's like, Wow! BC: Always! I'm always on the quest for the perfect When I was a kid, the only archtops I saw were the $75, woods from the perfect tree. The way things are now, if
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JB: Where do the woods you use come from? BC: Originally, I used all German woods. Because in the 70's that's what was available. In those days, the only sources were the suppliers of violin and cello woods. In the mid 80's I tried some western maple and liked the fatter, warmer, not as edgy sound. I could consistently get more volume, less jangle out of a guitar from it. In the late 80's, I also started using red spruce. In the late 90's I used some red Italian spruce, and I liked that even better. I still used German spruce for some instruments, but now, my favorite combination is Italian red spruce with Western red maple.

JB: Tell me some of the things that you desire in an archtop. BC: In an acoustic archtop, I want something that you don't have to beat to get the sound out. But, when you do beat it, it doesn't break up. I don't want it bright and harsh. I want all the notes to have a round sound. Acoustically, they are even from one end to the other. I want it to be even as well as very loud. They have to be loud.

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you find something you like, you get on the phone and buy all that you can. For instance, it is less desirable to build instruments with some soundboards from this tree and the next ones with soundboards from a different tree. I always prefer to build guitars with woods from the same tree. I mean I'd rather find a nice log that gives me goosebumps and get as many tops out of that tree as I can. That's what Stradivarius did. He found the perfect tree and built 700 violins from it. That's the story. If you find wood that you love to work with, and then you get wood from another source, it is going to work differently and it will take some time to get used to that other wood.

JB: What about the drying process? BC: The wood usually comes in at about 15%. We will resaturate the wood for about two weeks to about 25% and then we dry it slowly for about a month to about 12%. It is important that you go very slowly so that the wood redries evenly. Then, we let it sit for about a year in our shop. Some of our archtop woods have been here about twenty years, because I bought a bunch of it when I found it. Then, we will put it into a climate controlled area for three more months before it is touched to make a guitar. We want it to be acclimated to 47% at 72 degrees. 10,000 square feet of our shop is climate controlled to 72 degrees at 47% humidity year round. I just spent $350,000.00 on air conditioning because we just built this new shop. We need it and love it. It is wonderful.

Bill Collings

JB: When do you know that you have a great piece of wood? When it comes through your door and you look at it? BC: When you touch it and rub on it. You can tell if it is going to have that nice mid-range and all that warmth popping out of it. You listen to what it gives off. Never knock on the wood, you rub it and see if it gives off a warmth. You get to know what wood you like and what it will do for you.
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JB: I have heard that you bake your wood? BC: You are right, but only on the flat tops. We bake the top for one hour and shock it. We've already processed the wood down to 6% moisture content, so now we bake it from 6% down to 1%. Since we've already gotten it down to 6%, we are not having to force the water out, like we would have to do if we just stuck it into the oven when it comes off the truck at 25% or whatever. The reason we bake it is that we want that wood to get dryer than it will ever get. If we get the wood down to 1% in our shop, then during the normal cycles of expanding and contracting, it should never get back that low again. It then has a better rebound chance as it drys and cycles over the years. So, if we
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get a guitar back because of a crack; say the guitar has been through some horrible Northeastern winter, like in Pittsburgh (laughter), the wood will come back again and close up the crack. If we didn't shock it, the wood would never come back to that original size and close up. Our tops close up, unless they've been just totally abused. Anyway, that's the reason we bake them, we want rebound. I think of it as an accelerated seasoning. JB: Let me ask some general construction questions, how do you approach carving the top and back? BC: At first, it was all by hand, then in the 1980's I got a carving duplicator. All the time you're carving, you are touching and feeling that wood. I build to the feel of the wood. I first carve the outside perfect, then do all my graduations on the inside.

I build a 25 & 1/2 inch scale neck. I can go shorter if that is what the customer wants. That 24 & 3/4 scale has buttery smooth action but acoustically it doesn't push the instrument enough to get the volume I want out of it. On an electric guitar you want the 24 & 3/4 scale. That is a great scale for an electric. JB: . . . fingerboard wood and thickness? BC: We use rosewood on the electric guitars. I think it is a great wood for a fingerboard, though it may have a bit more ring to it than some people would want. In a standard electric guitar you then try to kill some of that ring. Ebony is also a great wood and we use it for all the flat tops and acoustic archtops.

JB: How do you shape the sides? How much do you wet the wood? BC: I built my own heated benders. I have ten benders and I built them for specific body sizes. We don't use universal benders. All the benders have temperature controls so that we are always bending at the proper temperature. With maple I have a specific bender just for those sides. It uses stainless steel and the wood is wrapped in paper or foil to help hold in the moisture. I hate bending maple because it splits so easily.

JB: You don't put the wood in a bath first? BC: Absolutely not. We don't pre-wet the wood. We want to bend it dry. If we have to, we may use a little spray on it. JB: What is your body size? BC: My standard archtop is a 17" body that is 2 & 7/8's inches thick. We're building more 16" guitars now though. We also build the occasional 15" and 18" archtop.

We CNC cut the fret slots. Machines are great for a task like that. That is one of those nuisance jobs. Like a bulk of the carving, machines do a better job than a human can ever do and it saves on the fingers and elbows. JB: For your bindings do you use wood or plastic binding? BC: Plastic. We do a few with wood. I like plastic better than wood.

JB: Talk about the inlay that goes into your guitars. JB: Talk about the process with your necks. BC: We use Mother of Pearl and Abalone, pretty basic BC: I build one piece necks out of Honduras stuff. I am not into inlays all that much. I have another mahogany for the flat tops and one piece maple necks guy in town do my inlays, Tom Ellis of Ellis for the archtops, from wood that has been in the shop Mandolins. He does great work. for quite a while. They are rough cut on the CNC (computer numeric controlled) machine and the final work JB: Tailpiece, wood and shape? is all done by hand. The blanks are cut and then laid in BC: Ebony is a real dead wood and a good choice for the acclimated shop for three months or longer. The a tailpiece. It doesn't change the sound at all. If you use longer the better. Our necks are very stable. They aren't rosewood, it will ring a little different. For our little 15" going to move. L-5 style guitar we will use a metal tailpiece simply because I like the way it looks.
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The same layering of color is used for our rubbed sunburst. Next, we will seal it. Then we put one coat of lacquer on it. Next, we scrape the binding. Then we scuff it and start adding lacquer. We'll put three coats of lacquer on it. Let it sit for two days, and then sand it. Put three more coats of lacquer on it and let it sit three more days, and then sand it. Then we start measuring it. We want the finish to be about 5 mils. Anything over that becomes detrimental to the sound. If a finish is too JB: Talk about the finishing process. BC: It is different for the different models. For the 16" thick it will cut the midrange. It will put a glare in the model it is a rubbed in sunburst finish. That is where treble strings, making them real bright and taking away you take color and rub it in. It gives us that vintage the creaminess. It can sound shrill. look. Some of our other sunbursts are sprayed. We want dynamic color. For the sprayed sunburst, we will It then sits for a week and a half and then it is wet sandspray seven different colors to come up with what ends ed and buffed. Touched up and buffed, . . . touched up up looking like a two color sunburst. If you just use and buffed, . . . touched up and buffed (laughter)! brown and yellow, it's going to look like the everyday JB: So, you're never done. sunburst. I don't want it to look just everyday. I'm into BC: Oh, no. The finish is never done. "special." I am one of the few people who charges extra for a sunburst. Most people use cheaper wood for their JB: What tuning keys do you use? sunbursts and hide it under the paint, I don't. I use my BC: We use Waverly open backs as well as Schaller best woods. Most people spray two colors, I take more time and labor and spray seven or eight coats combin- JB: What pickups do you use? ing colors to get the two colors I want. We also want to BC: We are still experimenting. I have used Kent Armstrongs. I've also used Bartolinis. It's whatever see the grain of the wood through the sunburst. you want. JB: With the bridge, what wood and shape do you use? BC: We use ebony. I like the bridge to have total contact all the way across on the soundboard. Interestingly, I have found feet on the bridge to sound only better on a mandolin. I don't know why, but it does. But on an archtop, I want contact all the way across It is an adjustable bridge with two posts. JB: How many archtop guitars a year do you produce? BC: My goal is to make one archtop a week, but I never get there. I haven't been pushing them, so I just build them when I am asked. We build a 16" non cutaway, which is the coolest little guitar, as well as a 15" and 17" archtop with a cutaway. We're also now doing a semi-hollow body electric with a carved top and f-holes. They're sweet. JB: Do you play gigs, even as a hobbyist? BC: I tried to play. My place in life is to build.

Collings guitars can be found in fine guitar shops worldwide. More information can be found at: www.collingsguitars.com or by phoning (512) 288-7776 (Dr. Barth can be reached at PJosephBarth@aol.com)

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