Collins Guitars

Making of two new oval hole guitars

MichaelCollins — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:18:26 +0000

A short video made at Roberto-Venn

La Parisienne

MichaelCollins — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:49:16 +0000

La Parisienne

Specs:

670 mm scale length

1 3/4″ wide at the nut

Traditionally carved neck

Quarter sawn Walnut neck, with the original Selmer headstock neck joint (this model features a truss rod access through soundhole)

Neck is fully adjustable.

Ebony Headplate

Spherical fret ends (as per the original Selmer/Maccaferri design)

Thick Ebony fingerboard

Solid quarter sawn spruce soundboard; Heat bent pliage

Each soundboard is scientifically tuned for optimum efficiency in tone production

Laminated back and sides: Interior veneer Mahogany/ exterior veneer in Indian Rosewood

Solid laminated interior lining (Not Kerfed)

Wooden binding, purfling and trim throughout

Finished in gracefully distressed nitrocellulose lacquer to give the instrument the feel of an antique instrument;interior is finished as per originals

Schaller Selmer style tuners

DR Tailpiece

First Ever Selmer/Maccaferri Course at Roberto-Venn is Complete!

MichaelCollins — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:45:42 +0000

Well we worked our tails off and managed to get together some extremely nice sounding guitars. We were very busy, and I have yet to post pics and info about the second and third weeks. I plan on sitting down over the next few days and go through the pictures and post them along with some info about our experience.

Here is a picture of the completed guitars to whet your appetite!

First Week of the Selmer/Maccaferri Guitar Building Course

MichaelCollins — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 14:37:10 +0000

Easy Does It

The first week of the gypsy guitar building course has now come and gone, and we’ve made quite a bit of progress. We are building a total of six guitars. Brendan from California, and Philipp from Germany are building 14 fret D-hole guitars, while Andrew and myself are building two oval holes and one 14 fret D-hole each.We managed to get everyone’s rims together including the solid linings, and decided to use hide glue for the entire build. The back braces have been made, and have been glued on two backs. The others will follow on Monday morning. Our order from Luthiers Mercantile will be here on Monday as well. Inside that box are the veneers needed to make the rosette log for these D-holes. So far everyone is having lots of fun despite the heat and long hours. Philipp brought an awesome Senseo coffee maker from Germany. We tracked down a 220 volt circuit and have been enjoying the coffee ever since. Our only problem now is that we only have two pads left. Must order some pads from the Netherlands asap!!!

Roberto-Venn Selmer Maccaferri course pt. 3

MichaelCollins — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:44:43 +0000

We have been very busy and enduring the hot Phoenix summer and a massive Haboob (sandstorm) which came right over South Mountain and infiltrated the shop! Here are some progress pics. Hopefully gonna have a guitar strung up here in the next week.

Selmer/Maccaferri style gypsy guitar building course

MichaelCollins — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:59:29 +0000

We are making good progress with all of the jigs and templates for the Selmer/Maccaferri style guitar course. To test the jigs for the class we are making a couple of guitars. Here is a picture of the rim assembly of one guitar before the liners were installed. Although the weather here is getting quite hot we are looking forward to a successful first class, and having an opportunity to work the bugs out for future classes.

Selmer Guitar Building Course at Roberto Venn

MichaelCollins — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 01:26:57 +0000

We are officially putting together a course for the Roberto Venn School of Luthiery, so Andrew Thomas and myself are furiously making the required jigs, templates, etc… to do a test run, which unfortunately will take place in July in Phoenix.

My friend Philipp is flying in from Aachen Germany to be our first “student”. We will be posting pictures of our progress as we get closer to the actual course, as well as progress during the class. This is going to be the long version where we will build a guitar, but save the finishing process for later.

For those of you who might be interested in building your own Selmer style guitar, feel free to contact me about either the long course (from scratch-Approximately one month), or the six day course, where many of the parts of the guitar are pre-made in order to meet the time constraint.

Stay tuned.