Collings Guitars is an Austin, Texas based stringed instrument manufacturer. The company was founded in 1973 by Bill Collings (August 9, 1948 – July 14, 2017). In addition to acoustic guitars they also make electric guitars, archtop guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles.

Collings attended Ohio University as a pre-med student in the early 1970s, yet withdrew from his studies in order to work in machining, which he continued for five years.[1] Within this time period, he built his first guitar. In 1975 he moved to Houston, Texas, where he begun work for a pipeline/oil-field company, as an engineer. Whilst also improving his guitar manufacturing skills after work-hours. Three years later he met musician Lyle Lovett (then a college student), who interviewed the fellow guitar-builder for the school newspaper, Collings told Texas Monthly. Lovett, who was impressed by the acoustics of Collings guitars, went on to purchase the 29th guitar he ever manufactured.

In the early 1980s, Collings prepared to move shop as far as San Diego, California – yet was unable to, instead residing in Austin, Texas. He begun work, sharing a space with fellow luthiers; Tom Ellis (mandolin builder) and Mike Stevens. Only a few years after, taking a more ‘serious’ approach in the pursuit of his craft, by moving into his own, one-stall garage shop.

George Gruhn, a vintage-guitar collector/seller in Nashville, hired Collings to make 25 guitars in, 1987. With Collings eventually receiving viable recognition from competing guitar stores, as well as various press-pieces about his products (magazines). Two years later, he hired his first employee and consequently, the company begun to excel even further.

At the 2006, Summer NAMM Show, the company grew to include the manufacturing of electric-guitars (as opposed to the previously mentioned, manufacturing of exclusively acoustic-guitars), producing the following three models; the I-35, the CL (City Limits), and the 290.

In addition to the manufacture of acoustic/electric-guitars, the company begun production of mandolins and ukuleles. As of May 2012, the company had roughly 85 employees and manufactured 6-7 acoustic guitar models, 3 electric, 2 mandolin and 2 ukuleles, per day.

In 2014, it was announced that the company would be producing a guitar based on a currently popular depression-era design. These guitars being sold under the Waterloo brand.

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