Collings: D-1

Submitted by soundhole on 8/26/2008

Where Purchased: Smokey Mt. Guitars

Year Purchased: 2008
Price Paid: $3,200 historic exchange rates / currency converter

Sound

I'm not a flatpicker by choice,this guitar made me one.The best D size acoustic guitar I've owned. Totally balanced and powerful, warm yet bright and punchy,perfect .There are probably better rythm guitars if you want full warm strumination...Gibson SJ,J-45,D-28,etc. but this D-1 just honks and cuts and single line playing never sounded better unless you have a 50's Fender Esquire or Tele and in fact I'd put the D-1 in that catagorey if that makes sense to anyone. All my friends who've played it agree...the best new guitar,the best Collings guitar,just the best. Just so you know I'm not blowin smoke,I've owned vintage martin,Gibson,Larson bros.,and over 50 Collings and everything else under the sun for the past 30+ years. I even have a sissy set-up on this thing with fairly low action and light guage strings and it still astounds.

Sound Rating: 10

Setup

The guitar had a pretty high set-up at the bridge so I lowered the saddle by half. The nut was just about perfect but had the hi Eand B slots lowered slightly. It has the 1 11/16 width and closed end drop in saddle which I prefer no matter what the Tone Nazis say about thte superiority of the thru saddles....I've never heard the difference. Sure makes a difference if you want to do your own adjusting....much easier with the drop in.

Setup Rating: 9

Appearance

Like most Collings ....nearly perfect in every way.Plain as can be... Sitka top and mahogany back and sides,Waverly tuners,usual balck/green HSC,tortoise binding and pg.,ebony fb,bridge,headstock overlay and pins.

Appearance Rating: 10

Reliability

One of the questions in this section is...Can you depend on it? Can you depend on a baby to eat,poop,cry,and sleep? You can debate all day long about which sound you like Martin,SC,Taylor,Collings,Gibson,Guild,etc.. But, one thing you can't argue is the strength,durability,consistency,and dependability of the Collings build. Although I think that Martin builds a great consistently good sounding HD-28 (my favorite Martin as I try hundreds out every year) and I love that sound,I'll probably never buy again . The last one I bought was a great one and I loved it right off the bat. Bought in March and by the end of Summer it had moved so much that I had the saddle shaved down to almost nothing to get it to play right for me. I'll admit that I like a low slinky feel to my guitars but it's a shame that the Martins move so much. Very few I've had over the years were stable. A lot of people say that Collings are too hi-fi as compared to the Martin sound and I get where they're coming from. A lot of Collings are a bit perfectly sterile with not enough warm woodiness...I'll grant you that but when it comes to stability and performance Collings is like that olympic swimmer Phelps ...solid gold!

Reliability Rating: 10

Customer Service

Again...gold..I had one problem some years ago with a Collings bridge lifting and they went out of their way to have it repaired at no expense to me. They also have helped in the past with set up ?'s and parts.

Customer Service: 10

Components

I think the reason that this particular Collings sounds so good is due to the top wood. I've learned some important things over the years by playing hundreds of instruments and observing what the top wood looks like on the most outstanding examples. I don't want to start a trend so I won't go into detail but my suspicions have been confirmed by one Mr. Musslewhite . This D-1 looks exactly like a 1962 D-18 that I swore was the best non-30's D-18 I'd ever played.

Components Rating: 10

Overall Comments

Look, this whole vintage guitar thing with the over-priced junk is ridiculous. Play this Collings of mine and soundwise, comparitively speaking,you'd pay whatever a 40's D-18 is going for...it's that good.I won't say that about every Collings vs. vintage but in this case....I'm flabbergasted that a new guitar can be so great in every way. Shop with wisdom and remember......a bear makes wide claw marks on it's victims.

Overall Rating: 10