Is Collings changing after Bill?

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elambo
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1152Post elambo
Tue May 07, 2019 10:45 pm

Haasome wrote: Tue May 07, 2019 6:53 pm I just received an email from The Music Emporium announcing the price increases on all Collings & Waterloo guitars effective June 1 and ——— “Collings has also ceased production of their own vintage-style cases. ”
:(

pto
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1153Post pto
Wed May 08, 2019 12:10 am

really? discontinue the cases altogether? as we all had been led to believe recently, confirmed by my conversations with Steve and with TME, LAST WEEK, the cases were going to be special-order, albeit with a substantial price increase. that said, i'll bet they are a royal pain to deal with in addition to Collings' primary job.

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Haasome
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1154Post Haasome
Wed May 08, 2019 1:01 am

Quote from email sent by Joe Caruso.

A price increase will go into effect for all Collings & Waterloos models on June 1st. All instruments (acoustic & electric) across both brands will be affected; so if you’ve had your eye on a particular Waterloo, or if you've been thinking about picking up a Collings guitar or mandolin ... now is a great time to buy!

Collings has also ceased production of their own vintage-style cases. Moving forward, all Collings instruments will come with a TKL case, including their "Traditional" series. If you've grown fond of the incredible Collings hand-built cases, call us while guitars & mandolins paired with them are still available!
Paul

pto
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1155Post pto
Wed May 08, 2019 1:57 am

wow...

and thanks for posting the follow-up.

actually, not necessarily out of line with all recent info, since steve said two weeks ago nothing had been finally decided on overall approach. now it has, i guess!

Mwyates
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1156Post Mwyates
Wed May 08, 2019 12:28 pm

I suspect that discontinuing the T cases is a wise business decision. They are super nice, but mine sits in the closet and my D2HMR A T stays in a Mono M80 bag. I think a lot of people would prefer that the guitar cost $6-700 less.

pto
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1158Post pto
Wed May 08, 2019 1:32 pm

agreed, on the business decision point.

JohnB
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1159Post JohnB
Wed May 08, 2019 7:01 pm

I find the prospect of no longer making the cases a great loss. We all of course see the world through our own lenses. For me, they are the most practical acoustics cases made. The reduced size and weight combined with reasonable protection makes them ideal to carry to performances: I'm neither lugging a clunky and sometimes failing TKL or a gig bag that exposes guitars to damage from minimal impact. My wife and I also often travel by car to vacation and sometimes rent vacation houses for a couple of weeks to a month. If I fly somewhere for a short stay I'll take a Taylor GS mini; if I drive I want a Collings. And in the Collings case the guitar is easy to carry along with luggage and get in and out of the car. If we stop for a meal, I'm comfortable just taking it inside with me: the TKLs are a pain to get in and out of a car and a big and clunky companion to carry into a restaurant.

But I think losing the cases--and I suppose this seems pretty old fashioned--is an aesthetic and engineering tragedy. There is nothing like them: they're really spectacular. And, unless the videos and the promotion leading up to their arrival was just puffery, they were very important to Bill Collings and define the essence of the company. He saw a significant problem, looked into the past for inspiration, and created an elegant and unique solution that is a model of the marriage of form and function.

The first reports that the company would make them as one offs you could buy directly from them offered some hope--though it didn't seem to me a viable business solution because it added a retail complication into the working of the manufacturing facility. The simplest solution of course would be, and sort of has been, purchasing them as a $700 upcharge through a dealer. (Collings really hasn't been able to deliver on this since they seem to be drowning trying to keep up with making them standard for the traditional line.) I'm hanging onto the smallest sliver of hope that now they are no longer manufacturing them as a standard case for the guitar, they can find a way to produce them in the smaller numbers that would be required by customers ordering them as an extra item.

pto
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1161Post pto
Thu May 09, 2019 12:59 am

"But I think losing the cases--and I suppose this seems pretty old fashioned--is an aesthetic and engineering tragedy."

i wouldn't use the word "tragedy," lest i be ridiculed,:) but the word i would use would be close to it! ok. yeah, tragedy works:)

i too am holding out a sliver of hope. just last week, another employee at TME told me that the cases would be available, again, at a significant price increase. so, we shall see.

JohnB
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1162Post JohnB
Thu May 09, 2019 6:20 am

So after some correspondence with Collings today, the plan from Collings is precisely that after fulfilling current orders cases will be sold directly to individuals. There will be a limited production of them, and if all goes as planned some cases will be available this summer. The price hasn't been determined, but will be more than the $700 or so that Collings was charging.

My estimation is that the original plan for the remarkably labor intensive cases is not really sustainable in man hours nor is it remotely profitable, and (I'm guessing from the increasing wait times for my last, and my coming, guitar) there is a need for skilled hands on deck with the expanded guitar manufacturing that now includes--in addition to the original line of acoustics--electrics, Wateloos, a Traditional line, and new additions of parlors and the C-100. (It's also remarkable that with the electrics the company makes both their own laminates and their own ivoroid.)

Collings in fact believes in the cases with the same passion with which they were first conceived and executed. So, for those like me who love the cases and want one (or more) both for practicality and to more or less complete a Collings guitar (and affirm Bill's vision), that cases will be available is great news.

pjkesq
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Re: Is Collings changing after Bill?

Post: # 1163Post pjkesq
Thu May 09, 2019 9:49 am

Mwyates wrote: Wed May 08, 2019 12:28 pm I suspect that discontinuing the T cases is a wise business decision. They are super nice, but mine sits in the closet and my D2HMR A T stays in a Mono M80 bag. I think a lot of people would prefer that the guitar cost $6-700 less.
A few months back I received my custom ordered OM2 SS VN. It came with the gorgeous collings traditional case. When I saw the case up close, I was blown away. BUT... in the short two hour trip home on the train, the soft outer leather of the case got two significant dings in it! And I promise I was being careful. I will say this about the case, If you are keeping your guitar at home, you could not have a more beautiful or more finely crafted case. But, if you are going outside of the house, gigging, etc, I think the case is impractical. I sold the case within weeks and used the money to finance the purchase of a new Calton case. Don't get me wrong, I loved the case, but I didn't believe it offered me the protection I needed for a guitar that cost thousands of dollars. Just my opinion.

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