Anyone else found Collings to feel "stiff"

[rgregg48]

I used to have a Collings D2,, I liked the sound of it, but it always felt
stiff to me.. I play from the first to the 15th fret so i negotiate
a few action changes as i play....
I ended up selling the Collingsd and getting a Taylor 710 ad
which sounds compareable (to my ear, anyway) but it just
felt a little looser, even though i had the Collings for 11 years
it never seemed to open up much and stayed kind of hard to play
up the neck, even thought the action was set reasonably low.
Even now , when i play Collings Dreads, i find the same thing.
anyone else notice this? or is it my age... fingers gettin old?

Rick

[rick-slo]

Nope. Of the three Collings I have owned they all played great with no problem fretting anywhere on the neck. Of course the action needs to be set up properly.

[rmyAddison]

Every guitar has pros and cons associated with it whether accurate or not, and certainly personal preference has an influence also.

Collings are fantastic guitars, very well made, a tiny bit bright to my tastes (I'm a Martin guy) but the "con" that has been associated with them is they can be "stiff/tight". Since the tone didn't quite work for me I don't have enough Collings playing time to be a good judge, although I play every one I see but only for a few minutes in the local stores.

However I have heard the "tight/stiff" comment for "some" Collings many times over the years for whatever that is worth. The people who love Collings do not share that opinion.............

[rick-slo]

I do think Collings ships their guitar with a little higher action than say Martin and Taylor. So if you just pick up a guitar in the store you will find the Collings requires more fretting pressure. You have to have the action altered to your preferences. I happen to really like the standard neck profile that Collings uses and the accurate intonation they have.

[Rodger]

Rick:

I have a Collings D2H with Sitka top, EI rosewood. I find it to be stiff, just as you described. I've had mine for about 5 years - never really loosened up. It almost seems like it's fighting me unless I play really hard. Sometimes I like that feel and tone. Most times, I don't. I've played other Collings dreads and felt that they all had that feel.

To each his/her own, as they say. I prefer my Bourgeois dreads.

[catdaddy]

I love Collings dreads and they are stiffer playing than any other maker's instrument that I've ever encountered. Not that they are necessarily harder to fret but the string tension seems to require more effort to bend notes. I keep my D2H set up at bluegrass playing height and use light guage strings (12-53) and the feel is comparable to any of my other (non-short scale)guitars strung with mediums.

[surfoxy]

Another Collings lover here, and yes, they're tighter than almost any other dread I've played. Personally, I think there are several elements which cause this effect.

• Scale length: I've heard (but cannot confirm) from my local dealer that the scale length on a Collings is a titch longer 25.5(?) than other dreads, many of which measure out at 25.4. My shop tells me that Bill Collings said to them he thinks it's the only way to get intonation correct.
• Top bracing: The tops are braced fairly heavily, even for a scalloped dread. This puts more resistance on the strings when bent or depressed.
• Top stiffness: Pure speculation here, but the headroom on my D1A is uncharted. I cannot overdrive it, with any pick or attack--it just gets louder, with no ceiling I can determine. The top has to be extraordinarily stiff, and this would cause resistance to fretting and bending. Don't know if this (if true) is due to the baking of the tops, the individual pieces of wood, or the top thickness. Potentially all three. All the Collings I've owned have tremendous headroom. I assume it to be an artifact of the bracing and top.
• Sharp edged construction: They have a sharp look, a sharp sound, and a sharp feel. All the corners (fretboard, bridge, etc.) are sharp, and that aesthetic adds IMO to the tight feel. Subjective.

They soften up and warm up over time, as many guitars will. They will get looser than when they are new, but they don't seem to change fundamentally. I'd rather have a gutiar that's too tight early get warmer and looser, than a guitar that's super warm and loose getting too dark and muddy. YMMV.

[rgregg48]

There is no doubt whatsoever that Collingsd are top quality instuments

I just think they play tight, and dont break in as much as some others.

apparently Pete Huttlinger does ok with them..


Rick

[Taylorplayer]

I've most certainly played Guitars that felt "tight"... I don't have the experience to say that would happen with all Collings (or any other maker) -- they are really "top drawer" guitars, for sure.

[Steve Berger]

I think of Collings guitars as more "focused" than "tight."

To me the ones I have played (mostly at Buffalo Brothers in Carlsbad and Westwood Music in LA) have not been as "alive" or "musical" sounding as I like.

I know these are subjective terms that have different meanings to different players. And yes . . . the Collings guitars I have played have had fairly new strings and weren't dead sounding.

They certainly are wonderfully built guitars.

[coreybox]

Mine was stiff about the first month I had it (I bought it new). It wore off after some playing time though.

I haven't owned many instruments brand new, so I'm not sure if that is typical or not.

[Wade Hampton]

It seems to me that I read an interview with Bill Collings somewhere where he said that they originally built their guitars lighter in order to get a great sound right away, but that the same instruments ten or twelve years later weren't something he was happy with. So he revised their designs to make the guitars "tighter" and a bit more trebly to begin with, so that they would continue to develop and reach full fruition later.

And when I read that I thought: "Wow, a guitar company owner and guiding light who's less interested in point of purchase impressions and more concerned about the tonal development of his instruments over the course of decades...."

So all y'all need to do is buy a Collings, play the ever-lovin' pea-waddin' out of it for twenty or thirty years, and by that point both you and the guitar will be at some sort of pinnacle!

Anyway, I thought it was a very interesting approach, but having spoken to Bill a few times it didn't really surprise me that he'd take the long view like that.


Wade Hampton Miller

[zenpicker]

This is why I've never been even slightly tempted to buy one. I've never played a Collings that felt natural to me, and "stiff" is as good a way to describe it as any. It does feel like the guitar is fighting me a bit. So it's interesting to hear that (some) others have experienced this too. And I thought it was just me!

[darylcrisp]

I tried out around 7 different Collings one day at a shop and would only have brought one of them home. All were in new condition with new strings-just didn't do it for me at all. I didn't think of how they felt after that, but after reading the posts and thinking back,it was a sound and action thing that turned me off them.

daryl

[surfoxy]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

It seems to me that I read an interview with Bill Collings somewhere where he said that they originally built their guitars lighter in order to get a great sound right away, but that the same instruments ten or twelve years later weren't something he was happy with. So he revised their designs to make the guitars "tighter" and a bit more trebly to begin with, so that they would continue to develop and reach full fruition later.

And when I read that I thought: "Wow, a guitar company owner and guiding light who's less interested in point of purchase impressions and more concerned about the tonal development of his instruments over the course of decades...."

So all y'all need to do is buy a Collings, play the ever-lovin' pea-waddin' out of it for twenty or thirty years, and by that point both you and the guitar will be at some sort of pinnacle!

Anyway, I thought it was a very interesting approach, but having spoken to Bill a few times it didn't really surprise me that he'd take the long view like that.


Wade Hampton Miller

Good post Wade--his approach is remarkable, but I can tell ya it's not a 20 or 30 year wait! They're tremendous out of the box (I'm sure you've played your fair share)--some better than others of course.

I've got a good 4 years into mine, and would be curious what you thought of it's tone. I'm betting a few more years and it will be sublime.