OM3-Cutaway, Adi, short-scale, 1 23/32" nut, SB

[DavidLesage]

Hello everyone,

After an 8 and a half month wait, my new guitar was finally shipped to me. It's a Collings OM3 with a cutaway, an Adirondack spruce top, a 24.8 inch short scale, satin finish neck, 1 23/32" nut width and a nice sunburst. I decided to remove the fretboard inlay, I prefer a completely black fretboard. Just wanted to humbly share my thoughts with you.

Firstly, I live in Canada, it's cold in here... On the box, it was mentioned to wait 24 hours before opening the box so the cold instrument inside would not suffer any thermic shock as this cold damage the finish. The case is amazing, very sturdy, a nice handle. The case cannot be left standing vertically, it will tip over. A good thing in my opinion. The case molds the instrument very well. There is a compartment under the neck support. The lines of the case are very harmonious. So 10/10 for the case.

The finish on the guitar is flawless. The nitrocellulose is like a mirror. The top of the guitar is super flat. The satin finish on the neck has a nice touch to it. The Adirondack top is quite beautiful. Sometimes, Adi can be a little rough on the eyes but this one is superb. The sunburst is also beautiful and not overdone. They make tit fit with the sides of the guitar. The ivoroid is not too white nor too yellow. It has some subtle lines in it that make is seem more natural and less "plasticky".

The Waverly tuners are a nice touch since they are not sealed. I am afraid the gears are going to collect some dust in the long run. I have no experience with these and will have to do some research on the net to learn how to take good care of them. They look very tough and delicate at the same time. They are not as smooth as the one on my 25 year old Takamine though. They are however more accurate.

Now, how it plays... I am just a couch potato type of player. I can pick, I can finger pick and I would consider myself a very average player whose instrument is probably 100 times better than him. But I have been playing for more than 25 years now so I thought I could treat myself with a nice instrument once in my life. So I did.

The sound of the instrument is very balanced, the volume of notes is rather homogenous going from the low to the high frequencies. My old Takamine's high frequencies are overdone and this was getting on my nerves. I had to buy JP Silks to calm the highs a little bit. This actually worked quite well. People have used the terms piano-like to describe the Collings OMs. I kind of agree with them. The notes are well-separated and not muddy. The sustain is above average but not overdone so you do not have an instrument that just resonates and keeps on resonating without control. Very nice in my opinion. Out of the box, the instrument feels "tight", it is not super responsive to light touch. Two reasons for this, it is brand new and has not got the chance to open up and the Adirondack top is not a lively as a Sitka spruce top and requires more energy to get moving. I did notice that the instrument just loves being driven hard and just does not top off when doing so. Picking hard on single or double strings during blues riffs just makes this instrument sound like $10,000,000! I am absolutely convinced that within a year or two, the instrument will open up and become even more responsive. The construction being on the heavy side IMHO might also be one of the reasons it feels tight and very solid. The guitar feels like it's been carve as a single block i.e. the bolt-on neck connection to the body feels super strong. In the hands, it is not a heavy instrument, it just feels well-built and the weight distribution is just perfect.

Palm muting sounds great, slides are easy and the feel of the satin finish on the neck is really nice. The harmonics fall at the right spots and are true. The frets chosen by Collings are pretty flat and thin. Whether you like them or not really is personal preference but I really like them. The neck shape is definitely an improvement over my old Tak. Again, neck shape is a matter of personal preferences but I think this instrument will allow me to improve faster.

So this is my very biased thought about this new instrument launched in the Universe. It's a WOW! for me. Looking forward to see what my brother (an awesome guitar player) will think of it.


As it is my first OM, I will have to say this... I should have bought an OM years ago. Dreads are too big for me but I got used to one without trying other models often enough. This one is just the perfect size and feels much more comfortable. I feel my guitar is much more versatile than my old dreadnought.

D.

[Eric Jones]

Congratulations! It sounds beautiful. Got pictures? How are you liking the satin finished neck?

[pjkesq]

Hello everyone,

After an 8 and a half month wait, my new guitar was finally shipped to me. It's a Collings OM3 with a cutaway, an Adirondack spruce top, a 24.8 inch short scale, satin finish neck, 1 23/32" nut width and a nice sunburst. I decided to remove the fretboard inlay, I prefer a completely black fretboard. Just wanted to humbly share my thoughts with you.

Firstly, I live in Canada, it's cold in here... On the box, it was mentioned to wait 24 hours before opening the box so the cold instrument inside would not suffer any thermic shock as this cold damage the finish. The case is amazing, very sturdy, a nice handle. The case cannot be left standing vertically, it will tip over. A good thing in my opinion. The case molds the instrument very well. There is a compartment under the neck support. The lines of the case are very harmonious. So 10/10 for the case.

The finish on the guitar is flawless. The nitrocellulose is like a mirror. The top of the guitar is super flat. The satin finish on the neck has a nice touch to it. The Adirondack top is quite beautiful. Sometimes, Adi can be a little rough on the eyes but this one is superb. The sunburst is also beautiful and not overdone. They make tit fit with the sides of the guitar. The ivoroid is not too white nor too yellow. It has some subtle lines in it that make is seem more natural and less "plasticky".

The Waverly tuners are a nice touch since they are not sealed. I am afraid the gears are going to collect some dust in the long run. I have no experience with these and will have to do some research on the net to learn how to take good care of them. They look very tough and delicate at the same time. They are not as smooth as the one on my 25 year old Takamine though. They are however more accurate.

Now, how it plays... I am just a couch potato type of player. I can pick, I can finger pick and I would consider myself a very average player whose instrument is probably 100 times better than him. But I have been playing for more than 25 years now so I thought I could treat myself with a nice instrument once in my life. So I did.

The sound of the instrument is very balanced, the volume of notes is rather homogenous going from the low to the high frequencies. My old Takamine's high frequencies are overdone and this was getting on my nerves. I had to buy JP Silks to calm the highs a little bit. This actually worked quite well. People have used the terms piano-like to describe the Collings OMs. I kind of agree with them. The notes are well-separated and not muddy. The sustain is above average but not overdone so you do not have an instrument that just resonates and keeps on resonating without control. Very nice in my opinion. Out of the box, the instrument feels "tight", it is not super responsive to light touch. Two reasons for this, it is brand new and has not got the chance to open up and the Adirondack top is not a lively as a Sitka spruce top and requires more energy to get moving. I did notice that the instrument just loves being driven hard and just does not top off when doing so. Picking hard on single or double strings during blues riffs just makes this instrument sound like $10,000,000! I am absolutely convinced that within a year or two, the instrument will open up and become even more responsive. The construction being on the heavy side IMHO might also be one of the reasons it feels tight and very solid. The guitar feels like it's been carve as a single block i.e. the bolt-on neck connection to the body feels super strong. In the hands, it is not a heavy instrument, it just feels well-built and the weight distribution is just perfect.

Palm muting sounds great, slides are easy and the feel of the satin finish on the neck is really nice. The harmonics fall at the right spots and are true. The frets chosen by Collings are pretty flat and thin. Whether you like them or not really is personal preference but I really like them. The neck shape is definitely an improvement over my old Tak. Again, neck shape is a matter of personal preferences but I think this instrument will allow me to improve faster.

So this is my very biased thought about this new instrument launched in the Universe. It's a WOW! for me. Looking forward to see what my brother (an awesome guitar player) will think of it.


As it is my first OM, I will have to say this... I should have bought an OM years ago. Dreads are too big for me but I got used to one without trying other models often enough. This one is just the perfect size and feels much more comfortable. I feel my guitar is much more versatile than my old dreadnought.

D.

CONGRATS! Such a great description of your guitar. I am sure everyone would love to see photos.

[DavidLesage]

Mr Jones,

The satin finish on the neck feels very good. I have only owned satin-finished necks. For some reason, when I tried the non-satin versions, I foond they were not slippery enough for my kind of playing. My thumb would stick to the varnish and it would feel weird.

For me, satin is the way to go and I would recommend it to everyone, you can’t really go wrong.

[wonderfulremark]

Very cool. Which dealer did you go through?
I've been looking at an used OM3 Cut SS at one of the dealers, but man that price tag is sure hard to swallow.

[DavidLesage]

I went through Lauzon Music, Ottawa.