Mention Bill Collings to a room of guitarists and see their faces light up. Along with a handful of American acoustic manufacturers, Collings represents the next level in luthiery, combining modern production techniques with a craftsman’s eye for detail. With a now well established reputation, these instruments surely deserve a place on any players bucket-list.

Based on the classic Orchestra Model body design, the body shape produces a very well balanced, full tone throughout the frequency spectrum. The Collings OM-1 uses a sitka spruce top, and mahogany for the back, sides and neck with ebony for the fingerboard and bridge. The headplate is Indian rosewood, with a mother of pearl Collings logo and three dots for position markers. Faux Tortoise is used for the body binding and the pickguard. For this 2005 example, a custom Abalone or Paua shell rosette was chosen. Waverly tuners and bone nut and saddle round out the hardware.

A word from the manufacturer…

‘OM’ stands for “Orchestra Model,” but 80 years after this body shape was first designed it has become the most popular 14-fret model with fingerstyle guitar soloists who choose to play on steel strings. Yet flatpickers also find it appealing, and when the graceful cutaway is added these OMs are often used by lead players who routinely explore all 20 frets much as they would on an electric guitar. The compact shape makes the Collings OM equally easy to handle onstage or when sitting on the couch, and the relatively shallow body (barely over 4 inches deep) results in balanced tone and an immediate response.

Specifications

• Top Sitka spruce
• Back & Sides Honduran mahogany
• Neck Honduran mahogany
• Body Binding Tortoise with b/w/b/w top purfling
• Bridge Ebony belly-style with 2 3/16” spacing
• Fingerboard Ebony with MOP short dots
• Fingerboard Radius 14” - 26” compound
• Bridge Pins/End Pin Ebony with MOP dot
• Nut Bone, 1 11/16”
• Saddle Bone, drop-in
• Neck Profile Modified V
• Peghead Profile Square
• Neck Joint Mortise & tenon hybrid
• Truss Rod Fully adjustable
• Frets Medium 18% nickel-silver
• Peghead Veneer Rosewood with MOP Collings logo
• Tuners Nickel Waverly (16:1 ratio)
• Backstrip 1-style (Walnut)
• Rosette b/w Purfling
• Scale Length 25 1/2”
• Brace Material Sitka spruce
• Brace Pattern Pre-war scalloped X-brace
• Body Finish High gloss nitrocellulose lacquer
• Neck Finish High gloss polyester resin
• Pickguard Tortoise
• Strings D’Addario EJ-16 (.012”- .053”)
• Case Deluxe hardshell case by TKL