Good evening folks
the new guy Fred here
I am looking for feedback on fossil for my 2001 D-1A , for instance pins , saddle , nut, benifits, drawbacks
is there a paticluar order to follow ? Pins would be the least intrusive on the bridge , saddle is something
I could fashion myself , nut I would have a pro do I think .Can you recomend a dealer ? there is a dealer in
Kty. ( name escapes at the moment ) who advertises pins for specific brands ( length taper slot no slot )
the one thing I would not want to do is alter the pin holes on my bridge the fit and finish detail of the pins
and holes just amazes me . When I first got my Collings I changed the strings as soon as I got back from
southern Ohio ( I have always done that with a new guitar ) the tone of the guitar was just stunning butt
when I seen the detail in the bridge area I knew I had made the right choice . I was a little leary about
my purchase as I had let go of a Larrivee d-50 & D-60 to get the cash for the D-1A they were good guitars butt
I never really bonded with them , and I wanted to be cured of the GAS syndrome . I honestly say that my Collings
has done that for me , any way back to fossil I am thinking pins & saddle
I would love to here from some of you guys on this topic .
Thank you for your help
Fred

Ok new guy again I have since been to the tech page and am finding some helpful advice I would
still welcome some more input maybe D1A specific

I am happy with what came with my Collings guitar, but if you want to try something else check this site out http://www.guitarsaddles.com/

Good luck, Rick

Thank you Rick

I do wonder justhow much more tone is avaliable
my GAS syndrome may have turned to add on
syndrome
Have a great evening
Fred

My 2 cents worth.
I find the nut and saddle on my Collings to be just fine, unless there is some other modifiacation needed.
I am a firm believer in the Ivory pins, and have them in two of my Collings. And to my ears, and those in the shop I was at, the pins DO make a difference. On my OM, one of the shop owners immediately picked up on the change in sustain etc, and he is a drummer by trade.
So if he can tell the difference it must be something?
Another plug for Bob Colosi at guitarsaddles.com. He has the stuff and will be glad to help in making a decision etc. Great service as well, and a wide variety in his selection.

Good morning Rick S
I hope you are enjoying the day , just finished the present thing with my wife & son , my boy is
off playing his new Eppi. Explorer
( at considerbal volume ) which gives me computer time. thankfully I never use the phone ,teenagers
the pin you have installed what species of ivory
are they ? where did you get them and did you have
to do any tweaking to the fit
thank you for your time
Fred

Hi Fred,
The pins in my OM are Elephant Ivory and the ones in the 000 are FWI. (fossilized Walrus)
I get all my stuff like this from Bob Colosi at guitarsaddles.com.
No "tweaking" needed on the Collings pins with the slotted bridge. I have had to do considerable fitting on my Goodalls though.
Different pins and hand fitted from James.

No problems with the Collings at all.
Plus, as a bonus, with the white pin and dark inlay of ebony or similar it just gives the guitars that certain "look" to them. It's like they belong that way or something.

Have a great one.

I have tried fossilized walrus ivory pins, saddles and nuts.

First of all, I think the FWI look way cool. But, I have to be honest, I can't tell any difference in tone or sustain from the ebony pins and bone nut and saddle that Collings installs on thier guitars.

I guess you just have to experiement and see what you find.

If FWI sounded better and/or improved the guitar's tone, I can guarantee that Collings would be using them on all the guitars they make.

Some people swear they make a difference.

I'm more excited about the increased sustain FWI gives. Notes will ring longer with a harder saddle. Plain and simple. And it's not subtle - after putting the original bone saddle back in, I'd strum a chord and it felt like the tone just died on me by comparison.

About the change in tone - some don't hear it. It's there - no doubt - and it's not necessarily "better." It will make your guitar a little brighter. If your guitar is already bordering on too bright, the FWI hardware could put it over the edge.

Pins - perhaps the most ridiculous guitar upgrade ever invented (unless you're doing it for its aesthetic value, in which case it certainly has an affect). This is another topic that gets tossed around a lot, but I'm always happy to chime in a remind people that pins can be yanked out of your Collings at any time - there's simply very little pressure against them to hold them in place - and anything that exhibits such little pressure against the surface of the guitar won't render varying results in tone with a large degree of difference. I've swapped pins from standard to FWI and, as expected, the only difference I heard was that my eyes said, "oh, that's pretty," and fooled my ears into thinking it sounded better, but only for a second. No difference in reality, and I made a recording of the two to prove it. Snake oil, friends.

Thank you Lefty
This is why I finally joined the forum first hand knowledge , the up grade thing seams to be like tweaking
horsepower out of a small block , or new pipes on a V - twin, the extra edge thing, last year when I had my
D-60 I upgraded to a set of unslotted bone pins and a couple of Tortis picks and that was a good step up
This past August a few weeks after I got my D-1A my dad was in Tenn. and picked up a real turtle shell pick
from Smokey Mountain Guitars ( which is where my pins & picks came from Dan is a great guy to do business with )
wow what a difference in sound with a turtle shell pick . I have received some Christmass cash and I may just
get another turtle shell pick , now I no there are some ethics issues here butt Dan assures that they are of
legal stock and he has a solid rep as a honest man
Lefty thank you again for your input
Fred

thank you elambo
again this is why I am here, just to cool , when you look to your own small group you have a limited resource
to draw from , my D-1A is already very brite extremely focused etc , and I am concerned about going to far
with the tone of my guitar it is already louder than the Martins , Taylors etc from the guys I play with
at some point more can be to much, maybe for eye candy bone with an ebony dot is what I am after
thank you again
Fred

quote:

Originally posted by lefty:
First of all, I think the FWI look way cool. But, I have to be honest, I can't tell any difference in tone or sustain from the ebony pins and bone nut and saddle that Collings installs on thier guitars.

I guess you just have to experiement and see what you find.

Lefty, I absolutely agree with you. I hv experiemented FWIs on nut/saddle/pins on my previous Collings. Honestly i can't hear that big difference fm another gtr with bone saddle & ebony pins. In fact, that gtr still hv much more sustains than Collings, I swear!. Perhaps there is a little or some differences, i don't know. but overall u don't hear distinctive improvements, which is important if that's the purpose of FWI.

But i muz say it sure looks damn cool on the gtrs.