I just spent the morning at the Collings factory having some tweaking done on my 2 mandolins. Alex and Steve are great to work with as always.

Recent rains have helped with fires but there is still a fire ban on for most of the state.

I saw the f-oval models. Ooooooh. Bought a couple of the new mandolin t-shirts for me and the little woman.

I saw the 40th anniv braz guitar for TME and an archtop that would make you write hot checks.

Ukes were scattered everywhere like rabbit pellets.

I do know that I am going to get a C-10 in the near future. I'm off to Hill Country guitars for the afternoon.

It's a tough life.

El Jefe wrote:

quote:

Bought a couple of the new mandolin t-shirts for me and the little woman.

For her I'm assuming X-Small?

Let's see one of them mandolin shirts! Either the XXL or the XS.

The mandolin t-shirts....

And the front.....

Love the shirt... yeah that sounds like a tough life. Can you dig it?

Alex also said that the new Collings web site should be up and running this weekend. The old site had about 250 pages and the new site has around 1450.

The T-shirts come in sand, faded lt green and faded lt blue like the picture above.

I played the other Kevin's walking dulcimer that he sells at HCG's. He showed me an A, Bm and a D and I was off to the races. The strings are tuned to DAD so they would make excellent "Father's Day" gifts.

I played 10 of the guitars during the afternoon while Kay roamed through the shops.

Light mist rising on the crystal clear Blanco river this morning. I hear a cardinal chirping. Should be about 82 degrees today. I believe I'll mosey back over to the shop again.

Yes I did play the OM Koa/Cedar.

quote:

Originally posted by El Jefe:
I just spent the morning at the Collings factory having some tweaking done on my 2 mandolins. Alex and Steve are great to work with as always.

El Jefe,

Can a person just show up at the Collings factory and have their instrument looked at?

I have a new D1A Varnish and I'd like them to check out the neck angle of this guitar because at the 14th fret the fingerboard starts to angle down toward the sound hole. If my guitar needs repair, I don't expect them to drop everything and do it while I wait, but will they at least look at it and give me their diagnosis?

Do you have to call beforehand and make an appointment to do this?

I'm from Louisiana and during my vacation I'd like to drive to Austin and tour the new factory. If I brought my D1A Varnish along, would someone be able to take a look at it?

God bless,
"louisiana"

mario, i think you need to call collings and ask- perhaps they can set up an appt for you. right now they have some sort of shindig going on -South by Southwest-in austin and they are making exceptions for the thousands of musicians who have landed there for the week.

MM is right. SXSW is a huge event.

http://sxsw.com

Call a few days before you go. Ask for Alex. Tell him what you need checked out.

Even though they are always busy, they give great customer service. Tours are Friday afternoons.

It took them about 5 minutes to adjust Kay's mandolin and 20 minutes for mine.

At SXSW last year there was a quite interesting story happened. There is always a big Canadian contingent that goes down So at the hotel most of the Canadians are staying at, two of the Winnipeg musicians hear about a High End guitar factory tour that was happening that afternoon. The two of them (they are not a couple by the way) booked their afternoon off so they could go on the tour. Neither one (if I understood correctly) knew anything about Collings guitars.... So they BOTH left the factory with Bran' New D2H's!!! ... Coolio eh? From never having heard of Collings, to leaving the factory with one apiece?...KK...