Collings confession

Oh what the hell...So perhaps you've noticed that I've wrote a couple of times about Collings ukulele recently. That's because I've been completely fascinated by them. To me they represent a chance to re-live the glory days of Martin ukuleles back in the early parts of the last century. I mean, ukes were credited with helping C.F. Martin get through the depression, and right now we're almost in one, so perhaps Collings is looking to the ukulele to help getting through some tough times right? Ok, maybe not. But as I wrote in the last post, I do see some similarity to C.F. Martin in the way Collings ukuleles are playing out right now.

So, once I decided that these might be the modern day "Martin ukes", I became seriously interested. Then I learned that only the initial batch of UC-1's will have the Collings "haircut" style headstock while subsequent ones will have the Martin style headstock, which made them even more intriguing to me. I like the "haircut" headstock a lot more than the Martin style, so if they aren't going to make anymore UC-1's with the cool headstock, I'd better get it now right??? So I finally relented to the UAS whirlwind and got me a UC-1 this week. To be honest, I'm kind of embarrassed to have bought so many ukes in such a short time this year. I'm fully aware that I only have two hands, but sometimes it's hard to fight the urge to try that very interesting ukulele.

Anyway, since I have the Collings ukulele now, I'll post some early impressions:

-Very light weight. It really reminds me of a vintage Martin in that it almost feels like air. It could also be that I've been toting around the ebony William King concert a lot lately so anything feels light by comparison. But the Collings really does feel super light to me.

-Very loud. I think the KoAloha concert probably has the biggest volume among production concert ukes I've heard. I don't have a KoAloha concert to compare it with, but I think it's close to the KoAloha in volume if I remember them correctly.

-Sounds great with the stock Aquila strings. I've come to dislike Aquila strings on most ukes, including stock ones that come on the Honu, both Kanile'as, and the LoPrinzi mahogany tenor, but it sounds great on this uke. I think I will keep the Aquilas on this uke for a while before trying out some Worth CDs.

-Nice bright and clear sound. Seems "ukey" enough to me. I think Collings is trying to build a ukulele instead of a uke that sounds like a guitar. I can't say I really know what a "guitar-like" uke sound like, but to me this uke has a fairly traditional ukulele sound.

-Beautiful mahogany. Dark color like the mahogany found on vintage Martins and Kiwaya KTS series ukes. I much prefer this over the "ribbon" mahogany found on many import ukes. And I like it more than the mahogany found on my LoPrinzi mahogany tenor as well.

-It has a gentle radiused fretboard, which was a surprise to me. Comparing it to the King concert that has a 16" radius, it looks about the same to the naked eye. I haven't found a radiused fingerboard to be a necessity and even though I play my two radiused King ukes all the time, I have found flat fretboards perfectly fine to play on. Still, I do like radiused fingerboards and it's a nice surprise to see it on this uke.

-Well setup and easy to play. You can alway adjust setup yourself, but it's nice when it comes ready to play with great setup.

-Outstanding workmanship. Very clean on the inside and well built. Collings has a great reputation for quality workmanship. This is the first Collings instrument I have ever seen in person and it meets that reputation.

I've only had it for a very short time, but I think it has exceeded my expectations. I think it would really be a hit if they can bring the price more in line with the Hawaiian factory makers. But as is, they seem to be selling well right now, especially the base model UC-1. I think Collings is in this market for real.

Radiused fredboard. I think it's 16"-18".

Soundhole label. I believe this one is the 7th prototype (P-7).

Treasures from Austin (L: Collings, R: King). Are you sure the ukulele didn't originate from Texas???

Regarding Collings ukuleles

The last poll asked about the new Collings ukuleles, specifically the entry model UC-1 concert ukulele. I had put up a poll about the approach of various guitar companies' approach to the ukulele, and I had lumped Collings with the likes of Breedlove and SCGC as building very high end custom ukuleles. Well, I think it would be more accurate to put Collings in the same category as Martin now that we have more information about how the Collings ukuleles will play out in the marketplace. By the way, I'm fairly surprised that such a large percentage of voters (almost half) didn't know who Collings was. I guess I didn't know much about them myself but checking around the 'net leads me to believe Collings is one of the more highly regarded guitar builders today. They are more or less positioned between the giant guitar builders such as Taylor or Martin and the sole custom shop luthier. They don't crank out a ton of instruments per year but apparently their quality is very high.

According to what I've gathered so far from some of the Collings' dealer websites (Collings website has yet to include a product page for their ukes), there will be 3 models available. The UC-1, UC-2, and UC-3:

-UC-1 (list $1150): Basic mahogany uke similar to a Martin style 0 of the old days. No bindings. Martin style headstock. Satin finish.
-UC-2 (list $1600): Mahogany or Koa with body bindings. Collings "haircut" headstock". Gloss finish.
-UC-3 (list $2600): Fancy koa ukes with headstock, body & fingerboard bindings . Collings "haircut" headstock. Possibly varnish gloss finish.

This is fairly similar to how Martin divided up their lineup in the old days with the various styles (0, 1, 2, 3, 5). Given that Collings has built a pretty good reputation of quality for themselves, these might have a chance to be the modern day "vintage Martin" ukes in the future.

In terms of pricing, my reaction to the $1k street price of the UC-1 is that it is actually something I would consider. $1k is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, and with a LoPrinzi model A concert costing about $500, the Collings UC-1 appears to be pretty expensive. But if you compare it with say a Kamaka concert, which usually runs about $800+, it became a little bit more reasonable. It is a handcrafted ukulele by a highly respected guitar company, and compared to the Martin re-issue style 3 sopranos, which costs in excess of $1500 and are also made by a respected guitar company, the cost of these Collings concerts seem to be within reason, at least to me. This, of course, assumes that these Collings ukes have great sound quality. Based on the reputation of their guitars and mandolins, and also comments from musicguymic, who has a couple of these, I think it should be safe to assume that they are at least very good, if not outstanding.

The UC-2 & UC-3 models seem pretty expensive at MSRP of $1600 & 2600 respectively. But they more or less correspond to the Kanile'a K-3 & K-4 models, which are in fact roughly in the same price brackets. The Kanile'a K-4 has more blingy pearls & abalone, but the UC-3 appears to have a varnish finish, so the cost for those might be a wash. To be sure, I think these higher model Collings are REALLY expensive ukes, but perhaps not as outrageous as they initially appeared.

I think what Collings is doing with ukes is closing in on what I would personally like to see good guitar builders do. That is to provide ukuleles that compete in the price bracket of the Hawaiian builders such as Kamaka. The Collings UC-1 is a bit north of the Hawaiian makes in terms of price, but they are roughly in the same ballpark. I believe these will be a hit if they put the "haircut" style headstock on the UC-1 (their plan is to use the Martin style headstock on UC-1 and "haircut" style on UC-2 & UC-3). A high quality U.S. built mahogany uke for about a grand just might find a nice little niche market. The UC-1s I've seen on the internet have all sold pretty quickly, so the market appears to be there for them.

Here are links to some pictures of prototype Collings ukes from Acoustic Music Works (I'm not sure how long these links will be good for):


UC-1 (prototype w/"haircut" headstock)
UC-2 Koa & Cedar
UC-2 Mahogany
UC-2 Mahogany sunburst
UC-3 Koa


Poll results:

The new basic Collings concert uke (UC-1) sells for about $1k, your reaction is:

-Not bad at all! Sign me up!: 3 votes (8%)
-It's a fair price, I would consider it: 1 vote (2%)
-It's a fair price, but I will pass.: 11 votes (29%)
-It's outrageous! I'll stick with LoPrinzi, thank you.: 5 votes (13%)
-Who is Collings???: 17 votes (45%)

Sucky first public performance

I got a chance to play a song on the ukulele at a family friend's birthday party last night. I decided to play While My Guitar Gently Weeps since I've been playing it for like a year and a half and it might be somewhat "impressive" to people who have not heard of the ukulele (which is probably most of the people there). There were about 140 guests and unfortunately I could not get my nerves under control and screwed up pretty bad in the middle. I managed to finish the song but could not tear my eyes away from the fretboard. LOL! Anyway, it was a learning experience and I think before I'm ready to play the ukulele in public I will need to figure out how to calm the nerves.

My dad got it on video and I'm posting it to Youtube despite the embarrassing mistakes in the middle. Hey, I never claimed that I'm Jake right?

"Studio" shots, reprise

Well, I decided to try a few more portraits for the King LS-concert today. I took the most of the pictures with underexposure for a dark effect. These are just taken on the dining room table. I guess for some decent quality shots, I would need some sort of a background paper or something. It can be fun to come up with some cool pictures for ukes. Of course, playing it is still the first priority.

"Studio" shots

I had some time this weekend to shoot some pictures in my studio (i.e. living room couch). In addition to the lineup update pictures, I shot a few other pictures centered around the William King ukes. The pictures are taken using a Nikon D300. If the motivation hits me, I might try my hand on some more William King style pictures with props and stuff. For now, here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

William King LS-concert.


Macassar ebony back.


Check out the rosette. It is macassar ebony with a ring of abalone in the center. Really classy looking.


Two spruce top/koa back & side ukes. A big King tenor and small Dasilva soprano.


Koa backs


William King LS-tenor and LS-concert.

Dragon on the new uke

I wanted to post something with the new William King long scale concert and had been planning to do a video of Dragon with it. I can play it pretty well now except for a fast tapping passage that usually kicks my butt. I tried it today and after several takes this was the best I can do. The King concert will need to be played a lot for the spruce soundboard to open up, so I'll try to post other videos with it down the road. Right now, it has a nice clear sound that is much different from the King LS-tenor.

Lineup update

With the arrival of the King concert, I guess it's time to do a lineup update. Hopefully this will be it for UAS for a while (yeah right!).

Since the last update, the changes are:

Comings: Kamaka tenor, LoPrinzi mahogany model A tenor, DaSilva Santo reproduction, Fender Nohea, Aaron Taylor tenor, William King LS-concert.

Goings: Kala tenor-neck soprano, Kelii tenor, National mahogany concert, Martin style 1 (on the blocks), Sonny D tenor (junked).

I guess I'm behind on the one-in-one out policy, but overall I guess it's not bad. The Aaron Taylor was something unexpected, so if you don't count that one, I kind of sort of (not really) achieved one-in-one out. With so many ukes, look for some wacky comparisons down the road as I attempt to put the number of ukes I have to good use.

Below are the group shots.

Tenors: Top row (L-R): Bluegrass Ukes cigar box, Koa Works, Aaron Taylor, KoAloha Pineapple Sunday

Bottom row (L-R): LoPrinzi model A, Kamaka, William King, Kanile'a super tenor, Fender Nohea

Concerts (L-R): Pete Howlett Uklectic, Honu XXX, William King, Kepasa Gypsy Rose, Kanile'a super soprano

Sopranos (L-R): Kiwaya KTS-7, DaSilva Santo reproduction

Bushman Cedartone baritone

Arrival of a King

The William King LS-concert is finally in my hands! It makes for an exciting day anticipating the arrival of a new ukulele, especially one as exquisite as this one. Here's a quick picture documentation of its arrival. I'll try to post more thoughts, videos, etc, in the coming days.

Very early initial impression (like after a couple of light strums) is: Pretty heavy, characteristically of Macassar ebony ukes. Nice crystal clear sound with very good sustain. Outstanding playability. The Gilbert tuners are the real deal.

Pics:

Box

Packing material

The case emerges

Case

First shot of the ukulele. Fit is kind of tight.

Back view

Side view. Notice the red side purfling.

Headstock with Gilbert tuners.


Another shot of the Gilbert tuners.

Gossip - ghetto cover

I had expressed a while back that I wanted to learn this tune called Gossip. I finally made some progress on it so here's a ghetto attempt at this tune. It is played on a Kiwaya KTS-7 that I actually bought from Neal Paisley. Not sure if I got any of his mojo using this uke, but it seems to fit this song very well.

Ooh, Collings ukulele

While checking out Gryphon Strings website to see if they've got anything new, I noticed that they had a Collings ukulele up for sale. I was quite surprised by the advertised price of $1,040. It seemed downright reasonable compared to what I thought it would be and how much other Collings instruments sell for ($10,000+ for a mandolin? Yar!) Don't get me wrong, $1k is not chump change by any means, but when MGM scored the first two Collings ukes from the NAMM show, he made it sound like they are like $3-5k (at least that's what I thought). Comparatively speaking, $1k isn't that bad for these babies. Hmmm........