I was talking to Kevin at Hill Country yesterday.
Last Dec I ordered a D1AV varnish. The good news is it now has a serial # and a start date of Aug 20th. The probable completion date is towards the end of the 1st quarter of 2009. The waiting really begins now....

Brother, I feel for you. I think your situation is why I've never custom ordered a Collings. I currently own a D1AV varnish (a 2006) which I could let go TODAY for the right price...

It's only a problem if you don't have guitars you like whilst you wait. Art takes time. Chill. I put the finishing touches on the CJ varnish order last November. Ain't here yet. Gestation. Yes, I get impatient, but that produces nothing.

Hey Tom, I was wondering about your CJ. Thankfully I have a great CWbraz with a vintage neck and a D1AVsb with a custom vintage neck that will hold back the impatience. It's just one of the joys of being a left-hander.

Start date of Aug 20th - completion end of 1st quarter '09 - that's 7 months! I haven't built one myself, but I don't think it takes that long to manufacture a guitar. What's the story here?

quote:

It's only a problem if you don't have guitars you like whilst you wait.

So true. If you have a nice guitar or two, it takes alot of the edge off, but it is still hard to wait.
I'm excited for Sonoman. What do you think? August?

papi, I stopped thinking about the due date. you can only bloody your head against the same stone wall just so many time. Was supposed to be May, then July, and July ain't happening. August would be nice, but we're gonna be in the Wyoming mountains from the 22nd to the end of the month, so that's probably when it will be ready for shipment. Just makes sense somehow. So, September? Halloween? Thanksgiving? whatever. tom

I've already waited a year for my Collings archtop with no ETA in site. Hopefully before the end of 2008.

No doubt a large contributing factor to the long wait time is the varnish finish - adding several months to the process compared to a lacquer finished guitar. Anyone actually know how much time varnish adds compared to a lacquer?

I talked to Kevin at Hill Country a couple of days ago, and he said the wait time for a Varnish Guitar is at 2 years now.

I talked to Alex at Collings Factory a couple of days ago, he said he could build me a D1 Mahogany Top, in about 4 months. Kevin said to give my D1 Mahogany Top about 4 to 6 months.

That's all I know.

Michael

What if they built a small building and call it the varnish wing, where they could control the temperature and have more space to dedicate specifically to the varnish process?

D1 mahogany top, sounds very very interesting.