Cost more to produce than to manufacture. Which brings up another fact: those vintage cases will never appear again manufactured new by Collings. But that's different than being a financial success. You can say he's a great businessman because he built a company that has manufactured legendary products with few parallels. And they still do, a testament to his legacy. He wanted to build great products and did. It isn't a secret that profit wasn't what motivated Bill. If you don't like it, it's best to take it up with the people in the industry who have plenty of opinions about that subject, those that lost their jobs, and the many that survived and are still there. That's what great companies do.Īnd I get it that some people don't like what was said about Bill's reputation as business operator, but it doesn't change facts.

I can't see this as any kind of big deal. They saw an opportunity to improve a product and took it. It was never announced and that was by design. There was an internal consensus the mandolins could be improved and they took steps and made the changes they thought would achieve those results. And that is just not the motto of this company.' If you would’ve left it up to the young me, it would have been, Don’t mess with it if it ain’t broke. But it was clearly and exactly what he said about the company later that is telling. That word hearkens all kinds of possible scenarios if you allow your mind to go there. Steve (Nall) used the word 're-design' in the article. I point blank quizzed a senior Collings employees I'd known for probably 20 years-I'm not going to name but probably some can guess-who was always at the show, had a major hand in a lot of business (particularly their mandolins) at the company and that person confirmed. Exactly when I wasn't told, but I noticed the difference at the last NAMM Show held in Anaheim (but not the previous year, so some time between) before the pandemic shut it down for a few years. In the fine article linked below, Steve Nall says “ Eventually I was tasked with helping re-design the mandolins….”Ĭan anyone (I’m thinking Mandobar can!) address what the redesigned features were, and when they began? Some of the ones they have even have the handmade cases. And they are still reasonably priced, so if you are looking for a high end Collings mandolin, especially a varnished model, it’s the time to buy it. But TME still has a really nice selection of used Collings mandolins that they have managed to acquire, some the likes of you may never see again. I looked at the new price list….and I had to sit down.

Right now they are concentrating on electrics and acoustics. Mandolins are going to dribble out of there for the foreseeable future. I don’t believe there’s any plans to up production on the mandolins at this point. Bill was certainly an innovator though and he designed and redesigned a lot of the jigs, joints, etc. If you search around on the Cafe archives I think there is a thread where Will explains a bit of the background. I believe Mike Kemnitzer was involved in the initial design but the internal details like exact form of neck joint or somejigs, fixtures or methods of building may have changed any time and factories would that call redesign as well.Actually it was Will Kimble who helped with the initial design. Collings mandolins don't show much change in physical shapes from their beginning. After reading the article I think the 'redesign' may be a thing from past, not recent.

Collings mandolin price list