Gather a gaggle of tone nerds around a
great guitar long enough and inevitably
the talk turns to magic, mojo, and
other strains of pseudoscience—almost as
if there were some robed and gray-bearded
sorcerer behind it all. Yes, sometimes there
is something beautiful about the sound and
feel of a 50-year-old Telecaster that you
can’t quite put into words. More often than
not, though, an extraordinary guitar is the
product of a luthier’s uncompromising standards,
and hands and minds that consider
anything less than perfection an affront to
the art.
Bill Collings would probably be the first
to admit that striving for absolute perfection in luthiery is a little like tilting at
windmills.
But his refusal to make anything
but the best guitar he and his staff can
build is what makes the instruments that
bear his name among the most revered in
the business. And though Collings’ acoustic
guitars, which are treasured by players
from Pete Townshend to Lyle Lovett and
David Grisman, remain the company’s
focus, Collings electrics are equally amazing
instruments—and they’re still subject to Bill
Collings eagle-eyed scrutiny.
The 290 DC S is one of the newest
members of the Collings electric family.
But don’t let the dead simple Les Paul Jr.
lines and bare bones visage fool you into
thinking this is some kind of exercise in
mass-market efficiency. This is a Collings
through-and-through—a guitar that significantly
refines one of the most elegantly
simple templates in electric-guitar history.
More Than Meets the Eye
There’s no disguising that Bill Collings
looked to the double-cutaway Gibson Les
Paul Jr. as inspiration for the 290 DC S.
And just as he saw the simplicity of mid-century
Martins as a perfect place of departure
for his first acoustic designs, Gibson’s
once-budget-branded Les Paul Jr. is the
ideal vehicle for Collings design optimization
talents.
The gorgeous cherry-hued, nitrocellulose
lacquer-finished body is a single piece of
beautiful mahogany—a formula for sweet
resonance if there ever was one. But where
the Les Paul Jr. is primarily a slab of right
angles, the 290 DC S is contoured more
like a Stratocaster—with a subtle body
contour on the upper bass bout and a more
severe taper on the back of the upper bass
bout where an old Junior would leave your
ribs bruised after a few Saturday night sets.
There’s also a deep cutaway at the waist on
the back of the guitar, as well as a gentle
taper on the treble side of the neck heel
that gives you a little extra access to the
upper frets. This is a comfortable and well-balanced
guitar.
The mahogany neck itself, which is
topped by an East Indian rosewood fretboard
and ebony peghead cap, is a remarkable
piece of work by itself. Collings insists
that a fairly substantial mass in the neck is
essential to making an electric guitar work
harmonically. But the balance Collings
strikes between heft and comfort on the
290 DC S is remarkable. There’s a lot to
hold onto for big blues bends, and the extra
substance offers an ideal resistance to gentle
neck flexing that’s great for subtle vibrato
effects. The 12" fretboard radius has a sweet
Gibson-style contour that’s good for chording
or bending, though Collings deviates
from tradition just a little by using a 24
7/8" scale.
Collings’ custom wraparound bridge
is beautifully milled and pre-intonated at
the factory, though players who use gauges
lighter than .010s (the company recommends
.011s) may encounter some intonation
issues. Elsewhere on the guitar, the
minimal hardware is similarly top-shelf.
Tuners are Gotoh SG301s, while the lone
pickup on the 290 DC S is a Lollar P-90
with Collings-made Bakelite covers.
Rip It Up, Mellow Out
While the 290 DC S is in most ways an exercise
in luxurious minimalism, that doesn’t
mean there isn’t a wealth of tones within.
It was a thrill to hear how the 290 DC S
responded to various power situations, as I
ran the guitar through a Fender ’65 Twin
Reissue, a Vox Bruno, a 100-watt Marshall
Super Lead, and a Fender Pro Junior.
Part of the beauty of the Les Paul Jr. (and
the P-90, for that matter) is its adaptability:
Juniors are equally at home in the hands
of country pickers, bluesmen, and punkrock
thrashers. The 290 DC S stretches the
protean and chameleonic capabilities of the
now-classic design in both directions.
Through the Marshall, the Lollar P-90
demonstrated an almost gentlemanly and
cultivated potentcy. Power chords rang
with harmonically charged, pure
Live at
Leeds locomotive-scale horsepower, while
single-note leads and quick stops had a
nasty, Jimmy Page-like bite. Roll off the
volume, though, and the 290 DC S gave
the Marshall a smooth and powerful high-octane
blues voice. An additional roll off
on the tone knob had the Collings and
Marshall sounding deliciously reminiscent
of Danny Kirwan’s Fleetwood Mac tones.
Through the Twin Reverb, it was easy
to coax the Collings’ Texas roots out of
hiding. Kick the volume and tone wide
open and pick a bit back toward the bridge,
and you might have the nastiest honky-tonk
tone yet heard by man at your fingertips—
a sweet mixture of mahogany muscle
and P-90 high-mid venom. Take a little
tone and volume out of the mix, though
and the Collings again becomes a much
more tender animal. Wes Montgomery-style
octave melodies sounded warm and
full of character—a nice deviation from the
usual hollowbody-plus-neck-pickup formula—
while more languid leads and finger
vibrato possessed the honey sweetness of
Carlos Santana’s early singing leads. For
the latter application, the balance of solidity
and heft seems to really pay dividends.
Again, the slab mahogany body lends
warmth to the tone. But the construction
integrity—and the way it creates a feeling
this guitar is very much of a unified
piece—give dimension to sustained bends
that really shine through an amp with high
headroom.
Those with small-amp proclivities—and
perhaps a taste for Muddy Waters and
Howlin’ Wolf’s Chess sides or Joe Walsh’s
early crunch tones—will love the way the
290 DC S can simultaneously wrestle grit
and high-end clarity from 15 watts and a
10" speaker. If you ever had any doubt about
how to match mahogany and tweed—the
290 DC S may be all the answer you need.
The Verdict
That the Collings 290 DC S is an exemplary
guitar is beyond question. It’s a
textbook study in how the simplest design
concepts can be refined and given new
life. And the combination of the immaculate
construction, the Lollar P-90, and
Collings’ own dedication to the guitar’s
development give it a broad personality
that runs from cultured to roughneck.
If there’s a downside to the Collings 290
DC S, it’s price. At $2850, it’s not exactly
a cheap path to simplicity. But, like most
Collings we’ve seen over the years, simplicity
belies the complexity of tone and
responsiveness to playing nuance you experience
when you put fingers to strings. And
what the 290 DC S gives the imaginative
and resourceful player is a blank slate and a
city bank’s worth of sweet sounds to work
with—a luxury perhaps, but one that’s
beyond value as a musician.
Buy if...
you savor the joys of elegant
simplicity and your musical moods
range from rowdy to refined.
Skip if...
you feel $2850 should at least get
you a second pickup.
Rating...
