I wanted to ask a couple of questions to fellow owners and I appreciate any feedback.

First, have you altered the shop set up in any way? I lowered my action just a bit and fell in love again.

Is your tailpiece all the way down on the top? Mine had about three turns to tighten all the way down which I did during string change.

Would you like a pickguard on your 35 if Collings offered one?

Last question, do you ever consider running your strings OVER the tailpiece instead of through it?

Thanks all for your time, dale.

I have a custom CL on order with P90's and love my 290 and was ready to sell the I35 until New Year's Eve. I played it and fell in love with it again...it truly is a great instrument.

That being said, I haven't mucked with the action or tailpiece at all...I think I've got a bit more to tighten the tailpiece if I want to, but again, I'm not going to mess with it at this point.

I don't think I'd want a pickguard on mine...I always want them on my mandos and my archtop, but not the I35.

Man, you've got me really confused on the 'over the tailpiece' idea with the strings...that may show my ignorance and fairly recent involvement with electrics again.

I'm really loving the feel of the neck and nut width too...it just keeps getting better for me with the I35.

I don't think I was much help, but since we have the same first name I figured, what the heck....

Kia Manuia,

Dale

www.daleinskeep.com

quote:

Originally posted by maplebaby:Is your tailpiece all the way down on the top? Mine had about three turns to tighten all the way down which I did during string change.

I've never had a guitar come back from a professional setup with the tail tightened all the way down. It's meant to be adjustable, not simply tightened up firm. My tech keeps them elevated about 1/4" or so to get the preferred angle to the bridge.

But I didn't touch my Collings. I would in a heartbeat if I thought it could use some help, but it's butter in every sense. Its tail is also raised.

As far as the strings wrapped over the tail - I don't intend to come off as conservative, and I'm certainly not, but I'm pretty sure these tails are designed to have pressure in a direction towards the neck, not upward.

thanks for the feedback!

Daily - it would mean you put your sting through the tailpiece in a reverse mannor, you could see the ball end while playing and the string would come out toward the end of the guitar and over the tailpiece then to the bridge. This is a les paul idea that most would trace back to Dwayne Allman, who had okay tone! Also taking the tailpiece to the body many feel allows for the most vibration to pass through the guitar from the strings. These things have are usually done together to keep the string from contacting the back side of the bridge.

I agree these guitars are just amazing. Mine was set up great and didn't need much. I appreciate your information and sharing it. Elambo I have noticed that with the tailpiece all the way to the top and stung the 'typical' way the strings will contact the back of the bridge on the 35, as you mentioned, and as Collings sets them up, the tailpiece has to come up a bit to avoid this 'tone killer.' Thanks for your feedback.

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I'm a little unclear on what you're describing in your last post, but I'll say this - in order to wrap the strings, you need the tail to lock. Sadly, I can't remember if the TonePros tail on Collings electrics is the type that locks or not. If not, I certainly wouldn't try wrapping. If so, it should be stable enough to handle wrapping, and in that case you'd HAVE to lower the tail.

elambo - I'm sorry I was unclear, I guess what I'm trying to say is I've had some experanced players be pretty convincing in their belief that lowering the tailpiece all the way to the body, then wrapping strings over top of the tailpiece will yeild the most sustain and tone, beacause this provides the guitar and string to have best chance to resonate together. In addition they would also say that the string angle over bridge is better and the guitar will also play a bit easier.

Having said all that - I just lowered my overall action a bit, left the tailpiece as Collings shipped it, and I LOVE this guitar. I agree with your comment that these guitars play so well I don't know if they could be improved. BTW - have owned many Gibson, I LOVE the Tonepro hardware. Thanks for your time to discuss and sorry about the unclear commenting, dale.

I believe that all Tonepros tailpieces lock. That's their claim to fame. I put one on my Les Paul Special, and it improved the tone of the guitar.

I'll second that they lock, that's the point. I installed the TonePros on my '71 LP goldtop (albeit one piece wraparound), and the tone and sustain improved. I was thrilled that Collings chose them for the hardware.

IMHO, the various adjustments described in previous posts represent attempts to improve upon/overcome the design flaws of the original (Gibson) tailpieces. TonePros has done that, so I'm not sure that these tricks are necessary on the Collings, IMHO.

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