mile-wide curious streak led him down a few
blind alleys as well. “There were banjo parts, and
a finished banjo back in the early ’70s. I can’t
say I’ll never do that again—make parts of it,
maybe—but that’s actually not my deal.”
Mandolins seemed an obvious addition after
carving the archtop guitars, and Collings
says they make about 500 mandolins a year.
At this point, they’re really happy with that
number. Ukuleles, a more recent addition,
were another obvious choice—especially from
a historical perspective. “We started making
ukes in a depression year,” he explains, “when
we didn’t have enough work on guitars. I’ve
heard that, many times in history, companies
would do that. Martin did it, Gibson did it.
When the economy was slow on guitars, they
filled in with ukes.”
Ukes, however, are not nearly as easy to
make as they look. “It’s a real instrument. You
can buy a uke for $150, you can buy a guitar
for $150, or $59, or $39. You can buy a uke
for the same thing. There’s really no difference in the bottom line.” Collings shifts in his
chair and pauses. “Actually, the same amount
of work goes into a uke as goes into a guitar,
so there you go—it’s almost the same. When
we first started making ukes, they were a lot
more than a guitar. The first 50 ukes took us
more time than 50 guitars.”
According to Van Wart, that’s because ukes are
a little fussier to make than guitars. Any mistake
is magnified, because they’re so much smaller.
“They take a lot of figuring out. It seems like
you could just throw one together, but they
take a lot of figuring. They’re really finicky.”
Most recently, Collings decided to try his hand
at electric guitars. And, as always, he had in
mind that careful balance between tradition and
innovation. “If I came out and had a brand new
thing—my own design that’s totally unique—it’s
not going to make it, because the public won’t
accept it. There are certain things they’re going
to look at in certain areas. Say you have a Gibson
influence, we make something on those lines,
but we change it. We can’t drift that far from the
spirit of that, because people want to relate to
it. They’re going to relate my City Limits guitar
to a Les Paul, but they’re not going to do it to
any Les Paul—they’re going to do it to a vintage
Les Paul. So we’ve got to put that style in there.
Make the guitar around 8. 25 lbs., make it play
really great, have great humbuckers, and not be
hollowed out, and blah blah blah. So you’ve got
to pick the right wood, you’ve got to make it all
work, and hope it’s accepted!”
Ever Onward
As you might’ve surmised by now, a vintage
vibe is important to Collings. “To me, vintage—
good vintage—is the stuff. That’s what I like,
and hopefully that stuff is on my guitars.” He’s
also got a pretty clear idea what people expect
from the Collings brand. “If we had started
with my 360 [solidbody] model, I don’t think it
would have worked as well. But now, that little
360, people like it because it’s different than
anything else.” (PG liked it too—we gave it a
Premier Gear Award in the July 2009 issue.)
When the conversation is steered back to the
recent economic downturn and how it has
affected the company, Collings says it actually hasn’t hurt much. “Right now we have
so much work. We’re just trying to get it out
and keep our dealers somewhat happy if we
can. But we’re so behind at the moment.
We’ve just been slammed the past four to
five months. Slammed. We did have three
months where we weren’t slammed, but we
noticed in late September and October it
was back, big time.”
As for where his tendencies toward tireless
tinkering will lead him next, Collings isn’t
sure. “Usually things just happen,” he says.
“We don’t plan it. We don’t do the model-of-the-month club and we don’t do anniversaries. We don’t do any of those things.” When
nylon-string guitars come up, his interest is
piqued. “I’m gonna do some of that. I should
have done it already, but I haven’t. So you
reminded me—thanks!”
