Collings OM1 A JL Julian Lage
 

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This guitar is all the gym your fingers will ever need. It’s designed for the bold, perpetual-students among us and it will guide you like a wise, yet exacting teacher. Conceived by the fertile minds of the late Bill Collings and the ever-blossoming Jazz guitarist, Julian Lage, this guitar is a saw-mill of tone. You better mind your fingers. One improperly flexed digit may cost you dearly.

It breathes a dry, warm fundamental that dangles it’s overtones out in front of you like so many delicious carrots. You’re going to have to work for your reward, but it will never sound sweeter. Over time, you may find that it’s smooth highs give you ample room to hone your attack and that the warm, steady bass always sustains just long enough for you to fit in that extra flourish. Like all good teachers, it wants you to succeed, but isn’t interested in making it easy.

It’s a handsome, simplistic, deeply dignified instrument. The golden-hued, straight-grained Adirondack spruce top has more headroom than a cathedral. The back, neck, and sides are hewn from the finest Honduran mahogany. The relic tuners look like they were pried off the hull of an old submarine in the best possible way. The Collings script is especially unique. It harkens back to Bill Collings earliest days making instruments. The neck profile even captures the hand-worn asymmetry of Lage’s esteemed 1939 Martin 000-18. It feels new, yet familiar. Like meeting someone for the first time and being flooded with deja vu.

Every detail conspires to ensure that no drop of tone is lost, from the animal hide glue to the custom satin nitrocellulose lacquer. The “tongue-brace” is also eschewed on this model. Only the raw materials of six-string magic are included.

This guitar’s versatility is contingent upon the dedication of the player. It moves air brilliantly, but needs direction. I could see it in the hands of a Jazz player, a singer-songwriter, a fingerpicker, or a minimalist composer; someone with vision and ability. Curiosity is also necessary, because despite it’s understated appearance, this guitar offers endless landscapes to explore. There’s something profound in that contrast.

In the popular “desert island” scenario, you’d be hard pressed to find a better instrument than this. It is bright, clear, woody, and honest in the way a guitar should be. It won’t lie to you and it won’t leave you hanging. It purrs when you thump chords and articulates single note lines perfectly. It’s incredibly balanced and consistent. In fact, with a guitar like this a desert island might not be so bad! Plenty of time to practice.

I love the idea of Julian and Bill working together to create this masterpiece. True wood whisperers. I say with the greatest reverence towards Bill’s memory that he truly mastered nuance with this one. It feels like an old friend.

When Bill Collings first met the brilliant young jazz musician Julian Lage, in 2014, the two began a series of in-depth conversations about their respective crafts. Lage's profound insights as a guitarist would play a key role in the creation of Collings’ T (Traditional) Series guitars. This rare collaboration, which continued right up until Bill’s passing, in July, 2017, has yielded another exceptional new guitar with an old soul. We are proud to present a highly personal extension of the T Series: the Julian Lage Signature OM1.

Specs:

Serial Number:
Top: Adirondack spruce
Back & Sides: Honduran mahogany
Construction: Animal protein glue
Neck: Honduran mahogany
Body Binding: Tortoise with custom wood purflings
Bridge: Ebony belly-style with 2 3/16" spacing
Fingerboard: Ebony with gold MOP short dots
Bridge Pins/End Pin: Ebony with MOP dot
Nut: Bone, 1 11/16"
Saddle: Bone, drop-in
Neck Profile: Custom JL carve
Peghead Profile: Tapered square
Neck Joint: Mortise & tenon hybrid
Truss Rod: Fully adjustable
Frets: Medium 18% nickel-silver
Peghead Veneer: Ebony with gold MOP Collings script logo
Tuners: Relic nickel Waverly with vintage oval buttons (16:1 ratio)
Backstrip: 1-style (walnut)
Rosette: Custom wood rosette
Scale Length: 25 1/2"
Brace Material: Sitka spruce
Brace Pattern: Custom Traditional Series pre-war scalloped X-brace (no tongue brace)
Fingerboard Radius: 14" - 26" compound
Body Finish: Custom satin nitrocellulose lacquer
Neck Finish: Custom satin nitrocellulose lacquer
Pickguard: Tortoise
Strings: D'Addario NB1253 (.012"- .053")
Case: Collings Traditional Handcrafted Case

Our Price: $6,150.00

https://midwoodguitarstudio.com/coll...d-78fe178c3370

CONTACT INFO

MIDWOOD GUITAR STUDIO

1517 CENTRAL AVENUE
CHARLOTTE, NC 28205
(980) 265-1976
(866) 620-1036
[email protected]

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Lovely guitar...did you by any chance apprentice with Stan Jay?

Agreed! Also, thank you for the kind comparison. I did not, but am flattered. Just a guitar picking English Major ;)