collings guitars
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February 2007 Page 119
Bill Collings loves the guitar, not playing the
instrument, but he is consumed with the design
and construction of the guitar. Satisfied with
not just building a good guitar, he is committed to
building the best instruments on the planet.
As a child he built cigar box guitars with
rubber band strings. He built his first
guitars thirty years ago in a spare
room in his apartment. Growing up
in the mid-west he left for
California, but never made it
past Texas, settling in its capi-
tal, Austin, where he and his
employees just moved into
his new shop.
Known for his outstanding
flat top guitars, his heart
has always been in build-
ing the ultimate archtop.
To name a few, Bill Frisell
and Lyle Lovett are some
of the artists that play
Collings guitars. I met with
Bill at his office in subur-
ban Austin where (when heisn't thinking about the gui-
tar) he is building, from the
frame up, one of the coolest
convertible roadsters this writer
has ever seen.
JB: You are a long time builder of flat
top guitars, what first intrigued you
about building archtops?
BC: I built my first archtop in 1976. A guybrought an 18 inch D'Aquisto into my shop and I was
hooked. It was the smoothest, creamiest, warmest
acoustic sounding archtop I had heard up to that point.
I also saw a lot of D'Angelicos and Strombergs that I
liked. The art in it always intrigued me. Of course, the
art of building flat tops intrigued me as well. But, the
art in making an archtop. It's like, Wow!
When I was a kid, the only archtops I saw were the $75,
pressboard guitars from Sears. But, when I saw a good
one, it was like, wow, this is the epitome of a guitar.
I wanted to take that older archtop and add more mod-
ern acoustical innovations to give it an even smoother
sound. Rather than being designed to punch
through an orchestra, have it produce some
sweet, warm notes. That is what got me
going.
JB: Tell me some of the things
that you desire in an archtop.
BC: In an acoustic archtop, I
want something that you don'
have to beat to get the sound
out. But, when you do beatit, it doesn't break up. I
don't want it bright and
harsh. I want all the notes
to have a round sound
Acoustically, they are
even from one end to the
other. I want it to be even
as well as very loud. They
have to be loud.
JB: Where do the woods
you use come from?
BC: Originally, I used al
German woods. Because in the
70's that's what was available. In
those days, the only sources were
the suppliers of violin and cello
woods. In the mid 80's I tried some
western maple and liked the fatter
warmer, not as edgy sound. I could consis-
tently get more volume, less jangle out of a gui-tar from it. In the late 80's, I also started using red
spruce. In the late 90's I used some red Italian spruce
and I liked that even better. I still used German spruce
for some instruments, but now, my favorite combina-
tion is Italian red spruce with Western red maple.
JB: Are you always on the quest for the perfect wood?
BC: Always! I'm always on the quest for the perfec
woods from the perfect tree. The way things are now, if
COLLINGS GUITARS by Joe Barth
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Page 120 Just Jazz Guitar
February 2007
you find something you like, you get on the phone and
buy all that you can. For instance, it is less desirable to
build instruments with some soundboards from this
tree and the next ones with soundboards from a differ-
ent tree. I always prefer to build guitars with woods
from the same tree. I mean I'd rather find a nice log that
gives me goosebumps and get as many tops out of that
tree as I can. That's what Stradivarius did. He found the
perfect tree and built 700 violins from it. That's thestory. If you find wood that you love to work with, and
then you get wood from another source, it is going to
work differently and it will take some time to get used
to that other wood.
JB: When do you know that you have a great piece of
wood? When it comes through your door and you look
at it?
BC: When you touch it and rub on it. You can tell if it
is going to have that nice mid-range and all that
warmth popping out of it. You listen to what it gives
off. Never knock on the wood, you rub it and see if it
gives off a warmth. You get to know what wood you
like and what it will do for you.
JB: What about the drying process?
BC: The wood usually comes in at about 15%. We will
resaturate the wood for about two weeks to about 25%
and then we dry it slowly for about a month to about
12%. It is important that you go very slowly so that the
wood redries evenly. Then, we let it sit for about a year
in our shop. Some of our archtop woods have been here
about twenty years, because I bought a bunch of it
when I found it. Then, we will put it into a climate con-
trolled area for three more months before it is touched
to make a guitar. We want it to be acclimated to 47% at72 degrees. 10,000 square feet of our shop is climate
controlled to 72 degrees at 47% humidity year round. I
just spent $350,000.00 on air conditioning because we
just built this new shop. We need it and love it. It is
wonderful.
JB: I have heard that you bake your wood?
BC: You are right, but only on the flat tops. We bake
the top for one hour and shock it. We've already
processed the wood down to 6% moisture content, so
now we bake it from 6% down to 1%. Since we've
already gotten it down to 6%, we are not having to
force the water out, like we would have to do if we jus
stuck it into the oven when it comes off the truck at
25% or whatever. The reason we bake it is that we wan
that wood to get dryer than it will ever get. If we get the
wood down to 1% in our shop, then during the normal
cycles of expanding and contracting, it should never
get back that low again. It then has a better rebound
chance as it drys and cycles over the years. So, if we
Bill Collings
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get a guitar back because of a crack; say the guitar has
been through some horrible Northeastern winter, like in
Pittsburgh (laughter), the wood will come back again
and close up the crack. If we didn't shock it, the wood
would never come back to that original size and close
up. Our tops close up, unless they've been just totally
abused. Anyway, that's the reason we bake them, we
want rebound. I think of it as an accelerated seasoning.
JB: Let me ask some general construction questions,
how do you approach carving the top and back?
BC: At first, it was all by hand, then in the 1980's I got
a carving duplicator. All the time you're carving, you
are touching and feeling that wood. I build to the feel
of the wood. I first carve the outside perfect, then do all
my graduations on the inside.
JB: How do you shape the sides? How much do you wet
the wood?BC: I built my own heated benders. I have ten benders
and I built them for specific body sizes. We don't use
universal benders. All the benders have temperature
controls so that we are always bending at the proper
temperature. With maple I have a specific bender just
for those sides. It uses stainless steel and the wood is
wrapped in paper or foil to help hold in the moisture. I
hate bending maple because it splits so easily.
JB: You don't put the wood in a bath first?
BC: Absolutely not. We don't pre-wet the wood. Wewant to bend it dry. If we have to, we may use a little
spray on it.
JB: What is your body size?
BC: My standard archtop is a 17" body that is 2 & 7/8's
inches thick. We're building more 16" guitars now
though. We also build the occasional 15" and 18" arch-
top.
JB: Talk about the process with your necks.
BC: I build one piece necks out of Honduras
mahogany for the flat tops and one piece maple necks
for the archtops, from wood that has been in the shop
for quite a while. They are rough cut on the CNC (com-
puter numeric controlled) machine and the final work
is all done by hand. The blanks are cut and then laid in
the acclimated shop for three months or longer. The
longer the better. Our necks are very stable. They aren't
going to move.
I build a 25 & 1/2 inch scale neck. I can go shorter if
that is what the customer wants. That 24 & 3/4 scale
has buttery smooth action but acoustically it doesn't
push the instrument enough to get the volume I wan
out of it. On an electric guitar you want the 24 & 3/4
scale. That is a great scale for an electric.
JB: . . . finger
board woodand thickness?
BC: We use
rosewood on
the electric gui-
tars. I think it is
a great wood
for a finger-
board, though
it may have a
bit more ring toit than some
people would
want. In a stan-
dard electric
guitar you then
try to kill some
of that ring. Ebony is also a great wood and we use it
for all the flat tops and acoustic archtops.
We CNC cut the fret slots. Machines are great for a task
like that. That is one of those nuisance jobs. Like a bulkof the carving, machines do a better job than a human
can ever do and it saves on the fingers and elbows.
JB: For your bindings do you use wood or plastic
binding?
BC: Plastic. We do a few with wood. I like plastic bet
ter than wood.
JB: Talk about the inlay that goes into your guitars.
BC: We use Mother of Pearl and Abalone, pretty basic
stuff. I am not into inlays all that much. I have another
guy in town do my inlays, Tom Ellis of Ellis
Mandolins. He does great work.
JB: Tailpiece, wood and shape?
BC: Ebony is a real dead wood and a good choice for
a tailpiece. It doesn't change the sound at all. If you use
rosewood, it will ring a little different. For our little 15"
L-5 style guitar we will use a metal tailpiece simply
because I like the way it looks.
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JB: With the bridge, what wood and shape do you use?
BC: We use ebony. I like the bridge to have total con-
tact all the way across on the soundboard.
Interestingly, I have found feet on the bridge to sound
only better on a mandolin. I don't know why, but it
does. But on an archtop, I want contact all the way
across It is an adjustable bridge with two posts.
JB: Talk about the finishing process.BC: It is different for the different models. For the 16"
model it is a rubbed in sunburst finish. That is where
you take color and rub it in. It gives us that vintage
look. Some of our other sunbursts are sprayed. We
want dynamic color. For the sprayed sunburst, we will
spray seven different colors to come up with what ends
up looking like a two color sunburst. If you just use
brown and yellow, it's going to look like the everyday
sunburst. I don't want it to look just everyday. I'm into
"special." I am one of the few people who charges extrafor a sunburst. Most people use cheaper wood for their
sunbursts and hide it under the paint, I don't. I use my
best woods. Most people spray two colors, I take more
time and labor and spray seven or eight coats combin-
ing colors to get the two colors I want. We also want to
see the grain of the wood through the sunburst.
The same layering of color is used for our rubbed sun-
burst. Next, we will seal it. Then we put one coat of lac
quer on it. Next, we scrape the binding. Then we scuff
it and start adding lacquer. We'll put three coats of lac
quer on it. Let it sit for two days, and then sand it. Put
three more coats of lacquer on it and let it sit three more
days, and then sand it. Then we start measuring it. We
want the finish to be about 5 mils. Anything over tha
becomes detrimental to the sound. If a finish is toothick it will cut the midrange. It will put a glare in the
treble strings, making them real bright and taking away
the creaminess. It can sound shrill.
It then sits for a week and a half and then it is wet sand-
ed and buffed. Touched up and buffed, . . . touched up
and buffed, . . . touched up and buffed (laughter)!
JB: So, you're never done.
BC: Oh, no. The finish is never done.
JB: What tuning keys do you use?
BC: We use Waverly open backs as well as Schaller
JB: What pickups do you use?
BC: We are still experimenting. I have used Kent
Armstrongs. I've also used Bartolinis. It's whatever
you want.
JB: How many archtop guitars a year do you produce?
BC: My goal is to make one archtop a week, but I
never get there. I haven't been pushing them, so I justbuild them when I am asked.
We build a 16" non cutaway, which is the coolest little
guitar, as well as a 15" and 17" archtop with a cutaway
We're also now doing a semi-hollow body electric with
a carved top and f-holes. They're sweet.
JB: Do you play gigs, even as a hobbyist?
BC: I tried to play. My place in life is to build.
Collings guitars can be found in fine guitar shops
worldwide. More information can be found at:
www.collingsguitars.com
or by phoning (512) 288-7776
(Dr. Barth can be reached at [email protected])