Collings City Limits Tobacco SB Aged Lacquer w/Primavera Body & Neck

Description

"Every day we try to make a better guitar, every day. You're trying to reach for more, trying to do better, not trying to do the same. A lot of companies are trying to do the same, and that's okay - that's their deal. We're trying to stretch that. Our goal is a little more." - Bill Collings

Collings Guitars, like so many high-end instrument makers these days, is coming face-to-face with the reality of dwindling wood supplies as our climate and forestry practices change. Not that there's a shortage of average woods with which to build "any old guitar", but a shortage of high-quality wood that meets the stringent requirements of a company like Collings - a company known for consistently building some of the best instruments in the world. 

Collings is looking towards the future of guitar building in search of a suitable, sustainable, mahogany alternative, as it's become increasing difficult to source the quality of mahogany required for their instruments. Fortunately for us Collings fans, present and future, they've landed on an incredible wood called Primavera, also known as "white mahogany".

Unusual name aside, we feel that this Primavera bodied City Limits, our first with this wood, is a giant step forwards towards capturing that old, single-coil-on-steroids tone that exceptional, vintage Les Pauls have. Our benchmark for great LP-style tones has always been the Fillmore recordings from the Allman Brothers Band. Hard to argue with the searing guitar work on those recordings and the tones are simply jaw-dropping - round, articulate, biting, soaring, huge sounding....truly the best of all worlds when it comes to electric guitar tones. This CL easily embodies all of those qualities - it simply sounds old, vintage, in the best way possible. 

In all other respects, this is a Collings as you've come to know, love, and expect. As a matter of fact, they sent us this guitar without telling us the body and neck woods were something new. We simply thought it was a killer sounding guitar with gorgeous looking woods...and that was precisely the point. There should be no noticeable differences in look, feel, or weight, but like many happy accidents in life, the tonal gains were huge, noteworthy, and incredibly desirable. We immediately jumped on the phone with Collings to say, "Yes!! This wood is incredible. It's opened up the CL and made it sound like a killer vintage Les Paul. Full steam ahead! Please!" 

To state the obvious, we're sold. If this is the future, we like what we see - and hear - a lot. Hats off to Collings for their willingness to embrace change, the chops to pull it off without a hitch, and for giving us guitar lovers an uncompromising new look at a classic design. Priced with hardshell case.