TOP SHELF: Collings City Limits Solidbody Electric Guitar

IT LOOKS LIKE A LES PAUL. IT PLAYS LIKE A LES PAUL. BUT DOES IT SOUND LIKE A LES PAUL?

Bill Collings was a lowkey legend in the world of lutherie when he emigrated from the Midwest in the '70s. He’d eventually find a home in Austin, Texas, and set up shop. Initially know for his work with acoustics, Collings eventually branched out into electrics and by the ' 90s business was good. Wide-ranging innovation hasn’t tended to be the focus of the company’s guitar designs. It would be more accurate to call Collings a connoisseur, someone who displays fastidious understanding and appreciation for the finer points of his craft. The Collings City Limits (CL) is a testament to this – it’s his take on a standard Les Paul. What sets it apart is in the details. Because while it really does look like an LP, the CL is by no means a straight copy. It takes good ideas from the classics and runs in a different direction with them. We’ve reviewed a few of the company’s guitars in these pages. Suffice to say that the CL lives up to the quality that we have come to expect from Collings instruments. There is a Deluxe model that sits above the one under review in the company’s product catalogue, but I’m pleased to say that the pared-back model didn’t disappoint. The homage to Les Paul’s original design is most apparent in the CL’s aesthetic. While

being a very faithful imitation, it’s also a very beautiful one. The guitar is put together with a great deal of taste, with the colour palette appearing particularly warm and inviting to look at. However, it’s not an attention-grabber. Anyone wanting to perform with a guitar with a time -honoured look will feel very comfortable with the CL.

Looks are one thing, but an instrument truly lives or dies on sound. As an LP lo ver I was keen to see how it stacked up against the Les Paul archetype in my head. Very well, as it turns out . At a broad level, the CL sounds as satisf ying expensive Les Paul copy should. Clean, it’s on the mellow side – not dull, but w oody.

It’s noticeably brighter than a standard LP, which plays into a trade-off between low-end and articulation. On the plus side: the e xtra brightness makes the guitar feel especially responsive – a hallmark of C ollings instruments – and allows even more tonal depth and harmonic response to be extracted from rolling the tone back and digging in with the fingers.

On the negative: there is somewhat less of the heavy, thick, low-end oomph that Les Paul’s are known for. The CL is by no means a wimpy sounding guitar, and does have it’s own kind of throaty bellow – it’s just not as gut-busting as the biggest of them. I read a comment online describing how the CL at times f eels like a Les Paul blended with a Strat, which helps ar ticulate the low-end attenuation and overall cleaner vibe one feels when playing.

I personally felt this absence the most when throwing down big rock riffs with the CL. An explanation might be that the sheer gir th of older Les Paul designs went hand-in-hand with the tones that have come to define certain styles. And that a lighter, more refined instrument like the CL will, by dint of physics, offer something different. However, I wouldn’t go so far as to discourage rockers from buying this instrument – or jazz cats, or blues dads for that matter. Each pickup position delivers a great sound, assisted by the sensitive tone and volume controls for each.

So overall the guitar is st ylistically capable and would suit any player who prioritises responsive articulation and high rather than low midrange.