Hey all,

Some of you may recall last spring I got a Collings 01.
Well I finally got around to throwing a couple of mics in front
of it and as expected it recorded very nicely.

For those that aren't familiar, this is the latest addition
to the Collings acoustic lineup and it is based on a 1932 Martin 0-18.
Slightly smaller than the Martin 00-14 pattern but also
slightly deeper. It actually has about the same displacement.

Its a short scale (24.9) 14 fret concert guitar with a 13 9/16" bout.
Mine is the classic mahogany/adirondack combination with a nice
pre-war Martin "shade" top.

When I first got it I was a bit worried that it would be too much
like a "parlor" guitar and that the novelty would soon wear off for
me (heh, always a problem when it comes to Wong and guitars
but surprisingly it has such a dynamic and versatile voice
with a ton of projection, that I can pretty much treat it like
a "real" guitar.

Tonally it falls somewhere between an 00-12 and an OM.
A bit more snap and articulation than the 00-12.
Its got surprising volume for its size and while it has
a nice old timey vibe to it, its also got the "collings-touch"
in that its a much more expanded voice than a true Martin.
There's that signature Collings liquid mid-range wash of overtones
and sustain that makes me such a fan of anything mahogany/adirondack
from Collings

As expected it does the thumbpick style country blues stuff very well
with a fast attack and punch but what really surprises
me is how well this little guitar does the moody fingerstyle
stuff. I remember having an exchange with Larry Pattis when
I first got it and telling him that it didn't think this
was gonna be a "DADGAD" guitar....to which he retorted "EVERY guitar is
a DADGAD guitar!" heh. Well, I retract my statement. Now
that its had a chance to open up a bit, it actually has a wonderful
moody tone in DADGAD.

Here's a clip of my rendition of Ed Gerhard's arrangement
of "Water is Wide". Like a lot of folks I fell in love with Ed's epiphanous
version of this most beautiful of melodies and it was the first
acoustic fingerstyle version I had ever heard. As much as I had been
influenced by his use of turnarounds and counterpoint offbeat
bass lines and have incorporated many of his ornaments into the handful of versions
I play, I had never actually learned his Drop-D arrangement. Well thanks to
Jack "Lefty" Wickes for recently bringing it back to my attention
and to the BevelSnob Stoolenreader for providing me the tab.
Here it is.....

"Water is Wide - Collings 01A-SB"

Enjoy!

MW-

Dang, Michael. That is truly amazing, the way you make that guitar sing!!!!

Makes me want to order the Collngs 0.

If there was ever a series of American Idol for fingerstyle players, you'd win it hands down!!!

You are a treat to watch and listen play.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lefty,

For Sale
Various Guitars All of Them. Cheap
I give up, I think I'll become a Professional Bass Fisherman instead. M.W. makes it look so easy that I might as well do something else instead of play guitar. Well done Michael.
Best,
Papple

Michael, Beautiful...absolutely beautiful...and you make it look so easy...I just provided the tab of this to my instructor, and we will be beginning on it soon...and now I have your video to watch as well...you show the sweetness of the 01A for sure...thank you!

Beautiful song, beautiful arrangement and beautiful playing…thanks for sharing Michael.

I can really hear all lot of the lovely nuances of the guitar with this style of playing.

Sweeeeet!

Dave

Mike,

Good to hear you again...you must have gotten off of that ski boat...the water was indeed wide.

Just listened...beautiful...maybe this is why we aspire to play guitar...

Thank you!!! How cool!!! One of my all time favorite songs played by someone much better than myself. What a great way to show off a great guitar. I am curious. What kind of neck does your O1A have? I played one with a Vintage neck that sounded great. I was quite shocked by the volume. Thanks again!!!

Thanks to all for your very kind words!
This guitar is just such a cool little package. Note that its taken
a little longer to open up and develop its voice than say an OM. That may be due to this particular adi top but I suspect that most smaller guitars take longer to develop due to the available area of vibration.

Dreadhead, my guitar has the standard neck, which is essentially a short scale version of the standard Collings OM neck. The Collings OM neck profile has always been my absolute favorite, in fact I had my Eichelbaum Custom OM neck built off of templates I took from my Collings. I personally like the standard profile better than the Vintage or Vintage NOW but if you like a skootch more wiggle room in the string spacing the V's will give you that.

I was having an offline discussion with Lefty about how much of what he's hearing is the mix and how much of it the guitar.
So I made him some mp3's of both the mixed and un-mixed recordings.

Here are the links for those interested. You really have to crank the unmixed version to hear it. Its from the raw wav file with just the head and tail clipped. If you look in the video, I used a stereo spaced mic pair about 18 inches out with one pointed about 14th fret and the other at the lower bout. I added some compression, eq and reverb and boosted the gain a bit, but essentially the tone is materially unchanged. The subtle tonal nuances this guitar is capable of is all there in the raw file.

Unmixed Version

Mixed Version

Best,

MW-

MW-

As usual, very nicely done.

Mik

It is great to hear someone play the guitar like MW does but to see him playing as well is a treat (and such a giver to share that with all of us).

We now have extra firewood in our fireplace: adirondack, mahogany, rosewood, maple, etc.

Yeah, thanks Michael. You're an excellent player.

Ace
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Beautiful Job!!!!

Pat Skrovan
Quincy's Guitars

Wonderful... Phenomenal... What can I say more ?

Congratulations !!! I wish I could play like you.... May be in another life...

May I ask you what gear did you use to get such a beautiful and musical sound ? I really would like to buy me 2 microphones + preamp and a recorder and when I hear what you've done, well I can't find words enough to say how amazed I am.

Thank you for sharing your music and your talent !!!

Arnaud