I've seen them at NAMM and they are indeed very impressive. All you'd expect. Light, great necks. Pickups are Seymour D. However I understand these are more a 'statement of intent' than production models.

Other news: black and red are back as color options, including the white grainfiller on black, shown on two C-10's.

The 01ASB is killer. Superlight in weight and my fave guitar on the booth.

Also played the varnish D1AV. Astonishing dread.

I have pictures of everything but camera/PC hassles mean I might not be able to post anything til I get home next weekend, so hopefully someone else can provide.

Rockerbob,
Is that a Rivera designed Fender hiding behind the Anderson? I have a '84 Super Champ, which is an amazing little amp.

"The 01ASB is killer. Superlight in weight and my fave guitar on the booth."

Yeah ya don't say. I played the 01ASS (as it's labeled) at the Music Emporium yesterday, and went to bed trying to figure out if I should trade the CJSB for one. Incredible guitar. And I love the size. And this was all flatpicking, which is not supposed to be the strong point of small guitars. Amazing.

hmmm,.. never was an Duncan pickup fan. there as so many better PU builders out there right now.

Fralin's HBrs consistently win the humbucking shoot outs, Lollars, O.C. Duffs, are great,...too bad Collings went with vanilla.

one nice thing I miss about electric guitars '
if you don't like the tone you just change pickups and pots till you do. LOL

My thought always with electrics is ?how do they sound without an amp? Knowing Collings, beyond belief!! Amplify that!!!

And Stixx is correct, keep changing the pots and pickups until your happy!

I have had 2 sublime and 2 great Duncan pickups. The 2 sublime include an EVH custom shop neck pickup at about 7.3K. The second is a prototype duncan JB model from the early 80's. Lower output than current models, about 8.3K. The 2 great pickups are a set of Antiquity HB's from the mid 90's.

quote:

Originally posted by Randy Carone:
Rockerbob,
Is that a Rivera designed Fender hiding behind the Anderson? I have a '84 Super Champ, which is an amazing little amp.

That's a Fender 30, a little known amp. 30 watts, all tube with 2 channels. They made only about 300 of them in the early '80s, some with 2 10s and some with 1 12. Mine has the single 12 and is like a Deluxe Reverb with a couple more watts.

Pardon my ignorance, but are the early 80s Fender tube amps all Rivera designed? I have an '83 Princeton Reverb II and it really sings.

DJ

DJ,
Jake Rivera designed the Super Champ, Champ II, Princeton Reverb II, Deluxe Reverb II, Concert II and the Twin Reverb II. They were introduced in '82 and discontinued '85/'87, depending on the model. Great dual and triple channel amps that have become quite desirable. My Super Champ has a footswitchable Lead Channel with a volume for that Mode and a Master Volume. All tube with Reverb and Line Out. Killer amp for sweet overdriven tone at low volume. Mr. Rivera says the Deluxe was his favorite of the lot.

So, does that mean this picture we took during last year's gathering was actually a leakage of Collings Electric during R&D? Look very much like the 335 to me!!

The one you snuck a shot of at the gathering was the very first prototype. It's all mahogany and they did a burst on it. It was actually a pretty great guitar. But Bill didn't think the burst "popped", and he changed the neck block after a couple more iterations. So, that one was probably cut up for the trash heap. As great as it was, the four "final" versions (and I still think Bill has a couple tweaks to go before these become production models) were even better.

kdd

It was kind of sad to see the beloved headstock attached to an electric body. Maybe Bill can come up with a new headstock design for the electrics.