NGD - Collings City Limits

Dave Merrill

Axe-Master
I posted that I was thinking about this in the What is your guitar whim right now? thread, then added a quick note that I actually bought it, but it deserves an NGD thread of its own.

It's this:
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(Shop pics, they're better at this than me.) Used, pretty nearly dead mint, Throbak ER-MVXs, even got a bit of a break on the price.

I went back to the shop 4 or 5 times to play it before I decided to go ahead. I've never spent anywhere near that much on a guitar before, and I'm not 100,000,000% at peace with that. But I played it through my Axe for a while tonight, and I still do really like it.

Tones are great, but it's different enough from my other humbucker guitar that I think it's probably going to need its own presets. It's not dull, at all, but the Throbaks have a lot of low end, I think, still getting my bearings.

It's not effortless to play, but it is comfortable, feels good, and overall, it's great.

Yahoo!
 
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Man, it truly does look like tone itself. I had one in my hands just before the pandemic, and it was really something. I couldn’t bring myself to plug it in because I just felt like it would become my life’s goal to own it haha. Congratulations again!
 
That is something really special!

If it plays/sounds like the only CL I've had the opportunity to play so far, you're a very lucky man.
1000% a very lucky man, in a whole bunch of ways, absolutely. Not the least if which is that my wife actually encouraged me to not be too shy about the money, since it's my 70th birthday present to myself. I go downstairs and plug it into my Axe III, and jeez. Kid in a candy store much?!?

Besides the music gear, I have a job (working at home even, since covid!), we have a house, food in the fridge, 3 great cats I love, we're more or less healthy, this isn't a war zone (literally anyway), on and on. I'm seriously grateful for all the advantages I've had and have.

And yeah, the Collings plays and sounds great. Like I said, it's not absolutely effortless, but it feels good, and I really dig the tones.

Store guy felt it and wondered if the strings might be a little heavier than the 10s we both think are probably on there. Not sure what could make that feel, other than actual 10.5s or something. Next time I change strings I'll know for sure if they're 10s, and if so, I might consider going down to 9s, maybe, though I've played 10s for many years. It's really good now, just a bit of work to play, but not too much, and I'm ok w that. We'll see.
 
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1000% a very lucky man, in a whole bunch of ways, absolutely. Not the least if which is that my wife actually encouraged me to not be too shy about the money, since it's my 70th birthday present to myself. I go downstairs and plug it into my Axe III, and jeez. Kid in a candy store much?!?

Besides the music gear, I have a job (working at home even, since covid!), we have a house, food in the fridge, 3 great cats I love, we're more or less healthy, this isn't a war zone (literally anyway), on and on. I'm seriously grateful for all the advantages I've had and have.

And yeah, the Collings plays and sounds great. Like I said, it's not absolutely effortless, but it feels good, and I really dig the tones.

Store guy felt it and wondered if the strings might be a little heavier than the 10s we both think are probably on there. Not sure what could make that feel, other than actual 10.5s or something. Next time I change strings I'll know for sure if they're 10s, and if so, I might consider going down to 9s, maybe, though I've played 10s for many years. It's really good now, just a bit of work, but not too much, and I'm ok w that. We'll see.

The work thing is definitely a line. I think this way with action, in that I never measure it. I'll start with it as low as I can get, then I raise it until the thing sounds good, and I'll find a trade off between tone and playability. I was forced down to 9s over the past year, but I don't mind it; I still get great tone from my axe.
 
Store guy felt it and wondered if the strings might be a little heavier than the 10s we both think are probably on there. Not sure what could make that feel, other than actual 10.5s or something. Next time I change strings I'll know for sure if they're 10s, and if so, I might consider going down to 9s, maybe, though I've played 10s for many years. It's really good now, just a bit of work, but not too much, and I'm ok w that. We'll see.
Collings are great guitars. I had an I-35 Deluxe but I just can't get used to the large 335 style body. I would love to get a CL some day. Collings does ship their guitars with 11's so that might be what's on there now.
https://www.collingsguitars.com/electric-guitars/cl/
 
Congratulations! What a beautiful instrument.
I use D’Addario 9.5s and it’s been great for me. Not too chewy, not too stiff.
 
The work thing is definitely a line. I think this way with action, in that I never measure it. I'll start with it as low as I can get, then I raise it until the thing sounds good, and I'll find a trade off between tone and playability. I was forced down to 9s over the past year, but I don't mind it; I still get great tone from my axe.
Started going up from 9s to 10s to 11s in the early '90s, then decided it wasn't achieving the tonal results I wanted, and found Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkies, #2222. Played them from the early '90s to a couple years ago, with the exception of a short period when I played Gibson Les Paul 9-46. Now I play Stringjoy 9-46. They run different gauges in the middle strings, and it really sorts the string balance and tension nicely. They run 9-12-15-26-34-46 vs. the 9-11-16-26-36-46 most run....
 
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