Collings C10-35 SB Sunburst Top Acoustic Guitar

The Collings C10-35 Sunburst guitar is one of our favorite models of the Collings line. This guitar combines features of the Collings CJ35 guitar with the Collings C10 guitar - and is one of our absolute favorite acoustic guitars at the shop. This Collings guitar features a select Sitka Spruce top and Mahogany back and sides, it has a loud, focused tone with a surprising amount of depth and warmth, and that distinct, vintage Depression Era L-00 vibe. Featuring pre-war non-scalloped Adirondack bracing and two tone bars, it also has an abbreviated tongue brace that slightly tightens up its overall sound, and a nice mid-range reminiscent of old Depression Era Gibson guitars. Incredibly versatile, it's especially great for old time tunes, folk tunes, and Robert Johnson-style country-blues, but fingerstyle players will love it, too. We really love it for all styles of playing and find it is an incredibly versatile guitar. It works great for bluegrass flatpicking, jazz, strummers, and more.

Peghead Nation writes:

Collings Guitars began offering a model based on the vintage Gibson L-00 early in its history, and today, the Collings C10 can be called a classic in its own right. Besides the standard mahogany-and-spruce C10, Collings has also long offered the C10 Deluxe, which has Indian rosewood back and sides and more upscale appointments. 

Though it’s built with mahogany back and sides and a Sitka spruce top, the C10-35 departs from a standard C10 in several significant ways. For starters, it’s built to be extra light, which is accomplished through wood selection and light construction. Another crucial difference is that the C10-35 has a short 24⅞-inch scale, rather than the long scale used on other C10s. The guitar also has non-scalloped Adirondack spruce bracing (instead of scalloped Sitka braces), a wenge wood fingerboard and bridge, and Collings’s ultrathin finish. Several of these choices point to the “35” addition to the model name, as the design tweaks were inspired by Collings’s CJ-35. The guitar has simple vintage-style appointments that include ivoroid binding, mother-of-pearl position dots in the fingerboard, and a tiger stripe pickguard. Collings continues to meet the incredibly high craftsmanship standard it set for itself decades ago; the C10-35s is built flawlessly. 

The C10-35 more than delivered on expectations. Its light weight, short scale, and slightly V-shaped “Vintage Now” neck give it a great 1930s L-00 feel, and the guitar’s tonality matched this impression. It has the “dry” voice typically found in vintage L-00s, as well as a quick response, great dynamics, and a pronounced and highly musical midrange. The guitar would make a mean blues machine, but with its great definition and string separation, it would also shine in studio and accompaniment situations, making it more versatile than its vintage association might let on. 

There’s a good reason the Collings’ C10 is a contemporary classic, and fans of this instrument now have more choices than ever. The C10-35 packs a great deal of vintage vibe into a beautifully built instrument, and it’s an excellent addition to the family.

Here with a slightly shorter 24 7/8" scale length, and a nice, wide 1 3/4" nut width, it really makes for an excellent player that's neither too large nor too small, and just as perfect in the studio as on the couch. This has a mahogany neck with Collings' vintage inspired profile and 2 5/16" string spacing, combined with an African Rosewood fingerboard, 20 frets, and a 14"-26" compound radius. Loaded with high-end appointments, it has Ivoroid binding, rosette, and tuning pegs; a Tigerstripe pickguard; mother-of-pearl dot inlays; and a one-style Walnut backstrip. The Collings C10-35 SB is an exceptional guitar with plenty to offer. Includes hardshell case and a full setup.

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