Hi all. (One of my first posts here) Has anyone heard anything about future Collings' electrics particularly something along the lines of a Strat or Telecaster-styled guitar?

How does the I-290 do at producing the single-coil sounds of a strat... also, are the 290's built lightly? Any insights would be appreciated.

Regards,

Robert

Robert -
Scroll down to the CL Deluxe thread started by Papple. On teh second page, he writes a great review of his new 290. George knows his electrics. Some of the other threads on TV yellow 290s alos offer great comments and experiences.

I have not heard any rumors about Collings building a Strat or Tele style model. There are a lot of great choices already in that style of instrument, like Grosh, Anderson, Suhr, etc. There are not as many doing the Gibson style well.

I have been playing my 290 quite a lot for about a month now. I feel that the pickups in combination with the mahogany body lean more towards the humbucker sound than a strat single coil sound.

The sound is more mellow and warm, there is a little bit of what I call a Tele spank but it is never shrill or overly bright. This guitar likes to rock. It takes to overdrive and distortion with sustain wonderfully

The more I play this guitar the more I am enomored with it. I have great other electrics (2 Andersons and a Grosh) to choose from but the 290 is getting the most play lately.

I agree with MEP - the sound of the 290 is very-much vintage Gibson. Having said that, there is definitely a trace of Telecaster 'quack' to the middle-position tone.

The Lollar P90's are great - 'time machines' regarding tone but reasonably quiet, as modern pups should be. Noise canceling effect in the middle selector position. They like to be driven hard and have a wide dynamic range.

This guitar is a rocker but I usually play it through my 60's National 'Studio' tube amp with a very clean sound, rhythm pickup, with some tone rolled-off. I get a good jazzy tone with good sustain (not 'forever' sustain, though). My playing style is 'jazzy-blues' (trying to get to 'bluesy-jazz'), finger-style lead-playing.

My other two main guitars are an Epiphone Elitist Broadway and a 1963 Fender Jaguar. The Broadway has a 25.5-inch scale and the Jaguar has a 24-inch scale, so the 290 falls somewhere in between.

The 290 would make a great 'rhythm' guitar - chords are very easy to play. I'm getting used to it for lead-playing but I'm lazy and still have the default strings on (D'Addario Nickel Wound EXL115's : 011", .014", .018", .028", .038", .049").

I don't consider the 290 to be particularly heavy - the Jaguar is quite a bit heavier. I don't really understand the modern trend towards lightweight guitars.

hakujin

P90's don't sound like strats, and won't. I can say that the Lollar pickups are phenomenal, but I have an I-35, not at 290. If you want a strat style, imho, buy a Grosh.

Thanks for all the comments. I still have my old strat and had a 335-style in the past and, after laying the electrics down since about '00, am toying with the idea of getting back into it a bit. I am not as familiar with the P90 sound so what style of music (or tone) does the I-290 seem to excel at?

Robert

Or for yet another step up the Strat chain, get your hands on a Suhr - the Collings of Strats.

quote:

I am not as familiar with the P90 sound so what style of music (or tone) does the I-290 seem to excel at?

That's pretty subjective. As MEP pointed out, the mahogany body of the I-290 is a major contributing factor to it's over-all sound.

I would think that most people would associate P90 pickups with a blues/rock sound. As someone has mentioned, these Lollars sound supreme when played through a cranked-up amp - crunchy but never muddy. They have a very full spectrum, with lots of top-end.

The best thing to do is go to the Lollar web site & listen to the P90 MP3 samples:

http://www.lollarguitars.com/Pickups.htm

hakujin

It's not that Fender doesn't make nice guitars (see below). Now, if this Tele was $2000 and not the $5000 that they're asking...

P-90s are showing up in a lot of rock songs as well. Not pop/rock - more alternative rock, although that genre is hard to classify at the moment.

Not the most versatile pickups, but they do have their own voice. I'm a fan.

quote:

Originally posted by hakujin:
It's not that Fender doesn't make nice guitars (see below). Now, if this Tele was $2000 and not the $5000 that they're asking...

Fender's Custom Shop is turning out some nice guitars. Overpriced? Quite possibly.

I am in agreement that you will not be able to get a p-90 pickup to sound identicle to a strat. If you want strat type sounds you should get a strat type single coil guitar. However a a good guitarist can play any genre of music with either and sound great, but maybe just touch different. I will second the Suhr strat as a top choice. I have owned Anderson, Grosh and Suhr. All three are tremendous builds. However for me the playability of the Suhr is best. My next venture will be the 290 simply because it is a Collings and want some pickups that are NOT the stat sound.