Collings I 35 Deluxe Premium Quilt Maple with Dark Cherry Sunburst and Parallelogram Inlays ID-7681

Collings I 35 Deluxe Premium Quilt Maple with Dark Cherry Sunburst and Parallelogram Inlays

Bill Collings' and his shop in Austin, Texas has been building some of the finest acoustic guitars for decades and has recently turned his attention to electric guitars. The result has been nothing short of astonishing. He has reinvigorated the industry with his take on classic design. The Collings I-35 is their reinterpretation of the semi-hollow body, two-pickup guitar.

While the rest of the industry at large uses pressed plywood for their backs, and bent sides, Collings carves the back and sides from one single slab of Mahogany. This preserves the "look" of a semi-hollow bodied guitar while providing noticeable sonic differences to the player's ears. The top is carved from a quilted piece of book matched maple. This not only looks more like the "original" late 50's and early 60's instruments, but more importantly, sounds like an older guitar.

Collings collaborates with Jason Lollar for all their pickup designs. While the particular pickups they use are specially wound to Collings specifications, they are very near in design to the Lollar standard Imperial Humbucking models. Lollar manages to capture the airy top end, tight lows, balanced midrange, and complex overtones of the best original PAF pickups.

In reviews, they are consistently given high marks for their balanced frequency response. Unbalanced coils keep the bottom end tight for the intense richness the pickups provide, as overtones build after each note is played. Alnico 5 magnets are de-gaussed to specific levels, unique to the neck and bridge positions.

The sound Collings has developed with these pickups can certainly be described as mature. The neck position pushes out a lovely warmth and depth – ideal for jazz chording or chunky blues. None of the pesky midrange honkiness that can be found with bridge humbuckers is present. The bridge pickup is certainly hotter and more aggressive, but maintains full-bodied presence without any harshness. One reviewer had this to say about the pickups, "As they're pushed, they react with a smooth compression without becoming excessively bright."

The mahogany neck is superior quality wood and topped off with a Rosewood Fretboard with Mother of Pearl parallelogram inlays. The profile is a comfortable "C" shape with rounded edges, giving it a wonderful, broken in feel. Leaving no detail untouched, the bridge and tailpiece are Tone-pros locking style, and the Gotoh tuners have grained-ivoroid buttons. You owe it to yourself to come in and plug this guitar into any of our Carr amplifiers and finally stop searching for the "tone", it has arrived!

Check out some of our other Collings Guitars

Specifications:

Shipping Weight: 68

Serial: i3513758

Top Wood: Premium Quilt Top

Back Wood: Mahogany

Nut Width: 1 11/16"

Scale: 24 7/8"

Bracing: Inset maple center block

Inlays: MOP Parallelograms

Neck Wood: Mahogany

Fretboard: Rosewood

Nut Material: Bone

Bridge: Tonepros AVR-II bridge and tailpiece

Tuners: Nickel Gotoh SG301 tuners w/ vintage-style buttons 1:18 ratio

Purfling: Black/White Top Purfling

Body Binding: Grained Ivoroid

Fretboard Binding: Grained Ivoroid

Headstock Binding: Single-bound Grained Ivoroid

Headstock Shape: "Haircut" headstock

Headstock Overlay: Madagascar

Headstock Inlay: M.O.P. Collings Logo

Frets To Body: 19

Neck Profile: Medium-Fat "C" neck shape

Pickup(s): Dual Lollar low-wind Imperial humbuckers

Pickup Controls: CTS 500K pots and Xicon caps Switchcraft toggle switch and output jack

Case: Hardshell Case Included

Misc. 1: Wiring: 50s Style

Misc. 2: Hand Set Mortise and Tenon Neck Joint

Misc. 3: Custom Ivoroid Knobs and Pickup Rings

Misc. 4: Inset Maple Center Block

Misc. 5: Fully adjustable truss rod

Misc. 6: Long mortise and tenon neck joint w/contoured heel

Misc. 7: High gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish

Misc. 8: Slim contour F-holes