From the visually complex Goldbug Hombre, I turn here to a guitar that I think is beautiful because of its flawlessly-executed minimalism.
Obviously, the primary objective for any serious guitar maker must be "playability", the physical properties of the instrument which allow it to effectively translate the intentions and skills of the musician into music. Only within the confines of playability can form be fruitfully wedded to function.
Collings Guitars in Austin, Texas has been well-known and respected for its acoustic guitars and mandolins for quite some time. They are now offering electric models as well, my favorite of which is the 290. Bells and whistles are conspicuously absent here. The design itself is hardly revolutionary. What is evident to me is the lengths to which the Collings team went in the preparation and finishing of this guitar.
Some of the guitar straps I make are quite elaborately tooled, like the Celtic Classic pictured on this page. But I love making the harness-leather straps at least as much as I do the fancy ones. On these, I'm able to focus completely on the basics of the craftsmanship, and the resulting product gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I imagine the folks at Collings get similarly warm feelings from the sight and feel of a completed "basic" Model 290.
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