Collings Guitars

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Just Jazz Guitar

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



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



Just Jazz Guitar

February 2007 Page 121

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.



Page 122 Just Jazz Guitar

February 2007

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])

Collings Guitars

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