The Collings Forum

Hello..the wait finally ended, wanted to share some photos and love to hear from other I35LCV owners!

Beautiful guitar, Dale—congratulations!! I'm eager to read and hear your impressions of this guitar, and how it compares to the I-35 LC (I am absolutely smitten by mine ).

I'm liking it! Congrats!

Looking forward to one of your excellent videos with it.

Frank

uponamouse wrote: Sat Dec 04, 2021 6:05 pm Beautiful guitar, Dale—congratulations!! I'm eager to read and hear your impressions of this guitar, and how it compares to the I-35 LC (I am absolutely smitten by mine ).

thank you, i appreciate you checking this out!

I do love the I35LC. My first I35 was the original, solid wood version. Beautiful guitar, pure Bill Collings in improvements moving toward a better ES style electric for ES fans. I loved the guitar but it didn't sound a great deal like the hollowbody guitar i was after in Collings quality. I can remember Mr. C saying once that he felt the solid wood design maybe have given the pups 'too much' information.

I can remember the appeal of many Collings Guitar fans to Mr. Collings to consider a laminate design, like the Gibson Guitars many of us have played or owned. These days we know how the story ends, but i was and still am, so impressed that Collings listened to their customers and after a lot of R&D the Collings family got what many wanted - a laminate Collings! This sounds cheesy and won't matter to anyone, but i remember being even prouder i was a Collings guitar player, that they would listen to the players opinions and work so hard to meet the desire with the amazing attention to detail we all so greatly admire.

I have an aged I35LC, i LOVE the guitar. It feels dry, if that makes sense. It is thinner and much lighter and less resonant. The Throbak pups in mine are hotter than i expected. I don't see ever changing them because the guitar can scream or sound nice and polite.

The guitar in this thread, I35LCV, is even closer to my original hopes Collings HB design would be. The guitar is even lighter, darker inate tone, the neck is less rigid, you can get nice vibrato with the neck itself by a gentle nudge back and forth. For my hopes the pups are just perfect, not as hot as my I35LC and let the guitars inherent voice come through much better.

For me NO ONE does aging better than Collings. IMO the 'big boys' just overdo it. This guitar is aged enough that it whispers to me play me! I'm not worried about the ascetics and keeping IT pristine and looks for authentic than most 'relicing' i see offered today.

I'm very thankful to have both the I35LC, i35LCV and an I30LC. I'm not sure if i'm hoping for an I30LCV or not, i really don't need another guitar!

Frank Sanns wrote: Sun Dec 05, 2021 1:43 pm I'm liking it! Congrats!

Looking forward to one of your excellent videos with it.

Frank

Hello Frank! Hope you are very well, thanks for your kind words and i hope to get a video out!

your friend,
dale

Congrats! I’ve seen many of your videos over the years and a player like you deserves a guitar of that caliber. I love that color choice!

Bronco wrote: Sun Dec 26, 2021 4:30 pm Congrats! I’ve seen many of your videos over the years and a player like you deserves a guitar of that caliber. I love that color choice!

Hello..thanks for the very kind words, sincerely appreciated! I had a walnut stained 335 almost 30 years ago, the neck twisted and it disappeared. I also remember one of my guitar heros, Pat Simmons of the Doobie Brothers, often played a walnut colored 335.

Hope your year ahead is a good one!