Collings I 35 LC Guitar Laminate Construction Premium Cream Finish with ThroBak Pickups ID-9431

Collings I 35 LC Guitar Laminate Construction Premium Cream Finish with ThroBak Pickups

Since Collings moved into the electric arena in 2006, Bill has had an interest in the role that laminate woods play in the tone of classic semi-hollow electrics and jazz guitars, and it was only a matter of time before he delved into a new variation. After much research and experimentation, and a few dissected classic guitars later... they are ready to introduce this exciting new line of electric guitars.

The I-35 LC model is a laminate maple version of the standard I-35. This guitar includes appointments such as a Premium Cream finish, dot inlays, an unbound Indian rosewood fingerboard and ebony peghead with amber knobs and rings.

Compared to the solid wood semi-hollow models, the laminate construction sends more controlled information to the pickups, allowing Collings to use higher output electronics.

Collings is now offering their electric models with a new choice of humbuckers, produced by Throbak. The Legendary 50's Gibson humbucker was the first successful humbucking pickup and is commonly referred to among collectors as the Patent Applied For pickup or PAF. Using similar tooling and wiring the Throbak MXV series uses vintage accurate reproduction to create pickups that offer the same vintage tones we know and love with a modern twist.

A common misconception of the Patent Applied For pickups was that these pickups were wound by hand. In fact, one of the most important tonal ingredients for the legendary Gibson PAF pickups was the vintage winding machines. Only using a small number of machines to wind the coils, each machine added it's own tonal signature to the PAF Pickups. ThroBak takes all the tonal possibilities that the winding machines are capable of and combine them to produce the ThroBak.

The SLE-101 Plus Limited has the same winder configuration as the SLE-101 Limited but with ThroBak custom cast unoriented A5 magnets and extra winds for more power and bite. The unoriented A5 has the crunch of A2 plus the added power of A5. Vintage spec. plain enamel magnet wire, Michigan hard maple wood spacer, vintage correct two conductor wire and threaded baseplate complete the picture. This provides a wonderful singing top end, a vibrant midrange, and a taut, precise low end. We plugged this one into a Carr Artemus and were completely floored with the tones that poured out of this guitar!

We wouldn't describe the tone of the laminate guitars as being better or worse than the solid equivalent. Instead, they should be viewed as two different guitars with two different sets of tonal characteristics.

Check out some of our other Colling Electric Guitars

Specifications:

Shipping Weight: 20

Serial: I35LC14542

Top Wood: Laminate Maple

Back Wood: Laminate Maple

Nut Width: 1 11/16"

Scale: 24 7/8"

Inlays: MOP Dots

Neck Wood: Mahogany

Fretboard: Rosewood

Nut Material: Bone

Bridge: TonePros Tailpiece and Bridge

Tuners: Gotoh with Collings Engraved Logo

Body Binding: White ABS Top/Back Binding

Pickguard: None

Headstock Shape: Collings Haircut Peghead

Headstock Overlay: Ebony

Headstock Inlay: Collings Logo

Pickup(s): ThroBak SLE101 Plus MXV Neck and Bridge

Pickup Controls: 2 Volume / 2 Tone / 3-Way

Case: Deluxe Ameritage Case

Misc. 1: Semi-Hollow Construction with Maple Center Block

Misc. 2: Premium Finish