| Bill Collings has teamed up with Mike Kemnitzer
of Nugget Mandolins to create a very limited run of these instruments that
replicate the A-style mandolin made for Tim O'Brien in the '70s!
We put our name on the list ... oh, maybe two years ago and lo-and-behold,
one just arrived!!!
Materials used for the soundboards, backs and
bridges on the Collings / Nugget Tim O'Brien model are selected from Kemnitzer's
private collection of hand-picked tonewood. The carve, brace and tap tune
take place at Nugget Mandolins and are then shipped to Austin, Texas where
they are transformed into completed instruments at the Collings workshop.
Apart from the obviously extreme high standard
of craftsmanship and tonewood selection it is the sumptuous TONE of this
mandolin that gets to you! This has to be one of the most expressive
sounding stringed musical instruments to come through our shop in some
time ... superb immediacy of response ... great bark when chopping chords
... crystalline clarity on single note passages AND it plays like butter!!! |
