The Collings Forum

I use a Venta room humidifier. After trying several other, less expensive models, this one has proven to not only be the easiest to use and maintain, it keeps my guitar room very well humidified year round - and I live at 7,000' in Northern New Mexico. My acoustics live on stands in the room, never ...

THIS IS A GREAT guitar, rare, almost impossible to find. My experience with Varnish Collings is they just can't be beat, someone needs to buy this guitar now.

I recently traded/replaced my beloved D1A Varnish for a OM1AT (the dread was becoming increasingly uncomfortable to play, just too large). My go to strings on the D were D'Addario Nickel Bronze, a perfect blend of fundamental and ringing overtones. Nice detail, good clarity, perfect balance, and the...

I've been using Elliot capos for years, well more than 10. I've tried others as well, like the G7 clamp on type. In all those years I've never, ever had an issue with the metal on the inside of the Elliot scratching, dinging or in any other way hurting the neck of a guitar. I've also had a bunch of ...

For sale is my 2011 Collings D1A Varnish. This a great, great guitar. Loads of volume and power, also does the soft sweet things to perfection. I play in both a gypsy jazz band (rhythm mostly) and am the lead guitar player at church. The guitar excels in both these very different settings and very d...

Thanks guys! Turns out I found a stupid, near criminal deal on a 2019, near mint OM1AT. Arrives in a few days or so. Very helpful and encouraging that this guitar - and all the T's - seem to get uniformly great reviews. Much as I love my Varnish, which also got great reviews back in the day, seems l...

Hey guys, I'm back after a long hiatus - I've stayed off guitar forums because they ended up costing me too much! Anyway, here's my situation. I own a 2011 D1A Varnish that I flat out love. It's a beast, when needed, and plays beautifully when played softly. Really, there's nothing about this guitar...

Following up, I bought and installed the treble bleed "kit" recommended above on the neck (only) pickup on my 290. For me, I think I like the result. Rolling off the volume preserves the tone better, meaning when I back off the volume knob the guitar mostly just gets quieter, the tone does...

The cap and resistor values I first got from Mark seem to be either very hard to find, or not available at all. In a follow up email he pointed me tp Mojotone: https://www.mojotone.com/kits/GuitarWiringKits_x/Volume-Mod-for-Guitars-2113347 I've got one on order (neck pickup only for me) and will rep...

Further... I emailed Collings and got a detailed reply from Mark less then 3 hours later. (Once again, Collings customer service is off the charts.) The 290, and probably all it's humbucker/P90 equipped guitars, come with 50's style wiring and no treble bleed circuit. Yes, the fix is very simple, qu...