The Collings Forum

Wow what a beauty! I have this model's little sister (OM1AT) and couldn't be happier. Quite a rarity to see bear claw red spruce like that... I think it's a testament to the "Crème de la Crème" woods Collings is selecting for these Traditional builds (top on mine also has tons of silking, ...

Congrats on a superb guitar, and at 10 years old it should be opening up nicely and hitting its stride tonally!

Those are some great sounding recordings on her website! :) I would definitely check out the Traditional series OM's, including the JL. I had owned a standard OM1A for 2 years, which I traded in for an OM1A Traditional about a year ago. The standard OM1A was a fantastic guitar, although I sometimes ...

My sense of it: The T box is not as "tight". It is built just a bit "looser". Just like tuning a drum head so it is not tuned as tight and rigid as possible, the resulting fundamental tone is a bit lower. In the T series, the looser box translates to a very slightly darker / dee...

I think everything Collings produces is outstanding, including the Traditional series. However, my opinion is that the traditional line represents a slightly different voicing and feel than the standard series that is neither better nor worse, and is likely Collings' response to the golden era / vin...

Seems to me the sitka/rosewood version would be the best strummer and have the warmest tone, based on my experience with the tonewood combos you mentioned.

I bought a new OM1A 1.5 years ago which was my first Collings. It is a fantastic guitar and I find it especially well-suited for flatpicking given its clarity and high headroom. However, I play 70% fingerstyle (flesh & short nails with thumb pick) and have found myself wishing it had a little le...