Collings Guitars
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| Private | |
| Industry | Musical instruments |
| Founded | 1973 |
| Founder | Bill Collings |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas, United States |
| Products | acoustic, electric, archtop guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles |
| Website | www |
Collings Guitars is an Austin, Texas based stringed instrument manufacturer. The company was founded in 1973 by Bill Collings who is "one of the most recognized and respected names amongst aficionados of modern acoustic instruments." Their acoustic guitars have been highly regarded for decades. In addition to acoustic guitars they also make electric guitars, archtop guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles.
Bill Collings dropped out of medical school in the early 1970s and instead worked in a machine shop for five years. At the same time he built his first guitar. In 1975 he moved to Houston, Texas, where he worked as an engineer with a pipeline and oil field equipment company by day and a guitar builder by night. Three years later he met renowned musician Lyle Lovett and built him a guitar.
In the early 1980s Collings decided to move to San Diego, California but never made it further than Austin, Texas. He started out sharing work space with fellow luthiers Tom Ellis, a builder of mandolins, and Mike Stevens. A few years later he decided to continue on his own and take the craft more seriously, moving into a one-stall garage shop.
George Gruhn, a vintage-guitar collector and seller in Nashville hired Collings to make 25 guitars in 1987. Collings soon received considerable attention from other guitar stores as well as magazines for his guitars. Two years later he hired his first employee and the company began to grow.
At the 2006 summer NAMM show the company moved into the electric guitar market, releasing three models: the I-35, the CL (City Limits), and the 290.
In addition to acoustic and electric guitars, the company now also makes mandolins and ukuleles. Their mandolins are highly regarded, they "more or less rule in the bluegrass market" in the United States. As of May 2012 the company has about 85 employees and manufactures six to seven acoustic guitars, three electric guitars, two mandolins, and two ukuleles per day.
In 2014 it was announced that the company would be making a guitar based on a currently popular Depression-era design. These guitars are sold under the "Waterloo" brand.
According to Collings Guitars official website the family of endorsing artists include:
Collings began producing Mandolins in 1999, and offers A-style and F-style mandolins as well as mandolas.
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Wikipedia