I posted this on Flatpick-L, but thought some of you might enjoy the Collings section. I'll add some notes down there....

I _finally_ got a chance to do some work on my own instruments.

First up was my '97 Anderson F5 mandolin. Good sounding, crisp mandolin, but just not as much volume as I'd like. The finish was a little thick and definitely brittle. I got out the "brillo pad" steel wool replacements, started with 00 grade and went to work. An hour later, I had a greatly reduced finish (judging by the reduction of a ding in the top) front and back and nice matte look. Looks like a Gilchrist now. Sound-wise, I think I gained something. Georgia says it sounds "cleaner" and Kasey said it sounds more "real". At the very least, it looks better. I've been running a homemade 1-piece bridge on this mando for a couple of years- next up, I"m going to go back to a Loar-style to refresh my mind with that sound. I've got a Dearstone mando coming in for a Loar-style bridge, so I figger I'll warm up with mine.

Next to the bench was my '92 Collings CW. It's been sporting a bone saddle for the past couple of months and I just wanted to try a different fossil walrus ivory. In addition, I'd noticed a little light under the heel, indicating that the neck was getting loose, so I wanted to take care of that. Got the glued-in bone saddle out. The slot was getting pretty chewed up from numerous saddle removals, so I decided to go ahead and route the slot down a little deeper and clean it up in the process. Did that, routing the slot down about .040" deeper. Pulled the bolt-cover off the bottom neck bolt and tightened it down. Goodbye neck gap! This alone gained me .020" of saddle height! Made my new FWI saddle, checked the action, and then glued it in. Thanks to the neck tightening and a small truss rod tweak, my saddle height went from .130" over the bridge to .160" with the same action.I thought the sound was just a tad crisper than before- I certainly didn't lose anything bass or treble-wise. Georgia drifted by as I was checking it out and said "That thing is LOUD!". No, don't think I lost anything....<g>. I did a good job on the saddle, too, if I might say so myself... Looks like this guitar's ready for another 10 years!

Later- I'm surprised at how happy I am with the FWI saddle. This guitar has really changed in 6 years I've owned it. At first FWI was just way too bright, but in the past year this guitar has really mellowed out to the point where it almost has to have FWI on it to get the "bite" I like. I'm very pleased at the improvement in treble that I got with this new saddle w/out losing the warm bottom end that the guitar's developed. Dunno if that's from the cleaned up and deeper saddle slot or what, but it sounds really good now.

I'm getting tuned up for the annual Amarillo Weekend Motel Jam on Jan 17-19. I always like this jam, but have missed it the past couple of years 'cause I've gone to Dallas instead. A couple of Hot Kids from SPC usually show up, and we have a lot of good picking. No distracting stage shows, just jamming. What's cool about this jam is that they have an Electric Room and a bunch of folks get in there and play old country, Western Swing, and such. Three years ago I took my Tele, but now I've got that '46 ES-125 (newly refretted!) and I think I'll take that and play a bunch of old Lefty, Merle, Bob, and gospel tunes with guys who knew Lefty, Merle, and Bob. It's fun. I'm taking 12-year old Kasey my fiddle player, and Pastor Bart's 12-year old son Kyler along. Kyler's been playing for about 6 months now and this will be his first jam. Kasey is a Jam Animal and my main job is to make sure she gets SOME sleep before breakfast. I'm looking forward to a weekend of eating and picking, and I'm leading a service on Sunday morning, which should be interesting. Any of y'all w/in 4-5 hours should consider going to the jam. It's at the 5th Season Motel, on west I-40, 1-877-246-1850.

Later, Collings people....

Bryan Kimsey
http://www.bryankimsey.com