[jrb715]

I hope this revived thread does not warn folks off of trying a Collings guitar. My experience has been that most Collings guitars I've played sound sensational, and most I've played have been a joy to play. But I also have found that one I purchased--an OM1 with an Adirondack top--indeed played, to my taste and in comparison to my other three Collings I owned at the time, uncomfortably stiff. I thought of the OM1A as my seventeen minute guitar, because that's pretty much how long I could tolerate playing it without getting fatigued. Before I put it up for sale, I emailed Collings and basically complained about the guitar and wondered not only if that's just the way the guitar--and particularly the Adi top--was meant to play but also why it seemed so stiff compared to my other three Collings. I received an email asking if they could call me and talk about it. When they did, a Collings representative offered to walk my local luthier through a set up (this would be a second attempt at a set up to make it more playable).

The guitar came back through the Collings-aided set up playing just as easily as my other Collings, and in relaxing into a wonderfully playable guitar it sounded much better: like my other Collings, it now sounded sensational. Not sure exactly what to take from this experience, but I suspect there is a relatively precise sweet spot with a Collings that involves both adjusting the truss rod and fixing the action. All Collings, by the way, don't come from every store with a factory set up. Two stores I know set up their Collings themselves. And, in fact, my OM1A came from one of these stores.

Two other notes: I've communicated with Collings a number of times now about ordering and customizing guitars. Collings has been to me a model company in responsiveness, and in simply caring for a customer. It's hard for me to imagine a better, more meticulous, guitar company. The other note is simply to repeat that, in my experience, most Collings guitars have sounded sensational and been a joy to play. My local store is a Martin dealer, and the folks there have put up with me playing my way through their inventory; I also have been a number of times to Artisan in Franklin, Tennessee and have played well over twenty Collings. I've never felt that Martin guitars play any easier than Collings: most of the time I've felt the reverse.