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Collings

2008 Collings D1A Varnish

Regular price $ 6,000.00 USD
Regular price Sale price $ 6,000.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

For your consideration, Garrett Park Guitars presents this 2008 Collings D1A Varnish.

This extraordinary Collings came to us from the original owner and it is virtually unplayed. Near mint & still has its original strings! The tone is simply amazing and will only improve over time. 

From the original Collings listing online:  

Every instrument that Collings builds is an exceptional instrument, but when you get the varnish finish option, it turns it into something unworldly. 

  • Select Adirondack spruce top
  • Mahogany back & sides
  • Black/white wood nitrate strip rosette
  • Tortoise-style top/back body binding
  • Black/white wood purfling with 1-style walnut backstrip
  • Pre-war scalloped bracing
  • Tortoise-style celluloid pickguard
  • High gloss varnish finish
  • Mahogany neck
  • Square headstock with no volute
  • 15 degree headstock angle
  • Ebony peghead overlay with inlaid Collings logo
  • Ebony fingerboard with ebony belly-style bridge
  • Mortise and tenon hybrid neck joint
  • 20 Frets, neck joins the body at the 14th fret
  • Modified V neck profile with 2 3/16" string spacing
  • 14"-26" Compound fingerboard radius
  • 1 3/4" bone nut and drop-in saddle
  • 25 1/2" Scale length
  • Medium 18% nickel-silver fretwire
  • Mother of pearl dot fingerboard inlays
  • Fully adjustable truss rod
  • Ebony bridge pins and end pin
  • Nickel Waverly tuners with 16:1 ratio
  • Recommended string gauge - D'Addario EJ-17 (.013"-.056")

 Collings first started offering varnish finishes on their mandolins back in 2004. In 2005 Collings introduced this option on their acoustic guitars. The reviews for their varnish finish guitars have been off the charts. The tone is big and complex. The guitar plays with an amazing sensativity and power. Heavy handed flatpicking just booms out without breaking up at all while it is still incredibly responsive to lighter touch playing.

Varnish goes on much thinner than laquer and is a softer and more flexible finish material. This allows the top of the guitar to vibrate more freely, thus giving the guitar a more resonant and "broken in" tone. Basically, it sounds like a vintage guitar. Unlike lacquer, the process for applying varnish is not conducive to "finish touch-ups", meaning the builder cannot control minor imperfections such as small pinholes, bubbles, or sinking. While Collings takes great pride in their exceptional standards for fit and finish, it is very challenging to apply and buff varnish to the level of cosmetic "perfection" consistent with their lacquer finish instruments. The varnish finish has a beautiful, rich luster, and resembles the color of a well aged vintage guitar (without the finish checking) and gives a much more yellow hue.

A varnish finish is not as hard as lacquer so some argue it is not as protective to the guitar as a lacquer finish. This can be true on brand new instruments, but the varnish will cure over time, giving the finish much more durability and in this case the instrument has had 13 years to cure & the finish will continue to harden as the instrument ages. The varnish finish allows the instrument to vibrate more freely and can produce a more responsive instrument with a greater depth of tone.

This is truly a time capsule guitar and unless you have a specially equipped DeLorean with an enhanced flux capacitor this is your best chance to get one that just happens to already be aged to perfection!

Serial Number: 14044

Condition: Near-Mint

Case: Original Hardshell

All photos are of the gear itself and are not stock photos.

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