My guitar collection - Acoustics
This is the late great Bill Collings’ version of the late-1920s 000 made by Martin. Like many guitars from that era, this guitar has a slotted headstock and 12 frets to the neck. Like the very similar 14-fret Orchestra Model (OM), the body of these guitars are a bit smaller and less boxy than the dreadnought, where the body of the 000, given at what fret the neck meets the body, is a little longer compared to the OM but with its bridge placed slightly forward too. Adirondack (Red spruce) has the best mechanical properties of all spruce species: cross-sectional strength, across-the-grain stiffness, and strength-to-weight ratio. Not only does this guitar have such a top as indicated by the ‘A’ in the model name, she is also been adorned with herringbone binding (‘H’) and a beautiful sunburst paint job (‘SB’) while accesisibility to the upper registers has been improved by a Venetian cutaway (‘Cut’). The dark stripe visible in the top is not a crack but indicates the seam between the 2 book-matched halves. The sides are made from East Indian rosewood, the neck is constructed from mahogany with an ebony fingerboard. The slotted headstock has a Brazilian rosewood veneer and Waverly nickel-plated machines with vintage-style butterfly buttons. For the standard specs of this model, visit:
Collings 0002ha sb cut
The story behind this guitar
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You have heard of John Mayer, have you not? You know that he plays a Martin OM, right? Well, I read an interview where he extolled the virtues of having a smaller box. Also in interviews with other finger-stylists in Acoustic Guitar, I had become intrigued with the concept of having an acoustic with a smaller body, be it either an OM or a 000. Fortunately here in Seattle, a store like Dusty Strings allows anybody to test-drive a wide range of high-end acoustic guitars built by a large selection of manufacturers. So that is what you do. And the Collings 0001 they had sounded pretty good. Then, as luck had it, this guitar (listed as a 2006) was offered on eBay by Big Jim’s Guitars, a well respected name in collecting circles. So that was it! Never looked back, since it has all I ever wanted: beautiful exterior, heavenly sounding, and plays like butter. It is nice to compare the sound of this smaller model with its large brother, the D2HA. You will notice right away that there are more mids and sparkling highs, since the lows have been suppressed. My absolute favorite fingerstyle guitar nowadays frequently in tow when visiting friends so I can entertain the crowd. And the pickguard is entirely obsolete; I have not touched this guitar with a pick yet ...
