{"id":135560,"date":"2023-07-05T08:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T15:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=135560"},"modified":"2023-07-05T09:06:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T16:06:27","slug":"great-acoustics-steve-james-collings-custom-c10-was-his-main-steel-string-companion-for-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/great-acoustics-steve-james-collings-custom-c10-was-his-main-steel-string-companion-for-30-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics: Steve James\u2019 Collings Custom C10 was His Main Steel-String Companion for 30 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As Steve James recounted in an AG<\/em> podcast<\/a> recorded not long before his passing, he once stuffed a shopping cart full of prized vintage guitars\u2014among them a Gibson J-45 and a prewar Martin\u2014and headed to a recording session several blocks from where he lived at the time, in Austin, Texas. As James was setting up, the audio engineer apparently said, \u201cWhere\u2019s that little black guitar of yours\u2014why don\u2019t you go get it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That little black guitar is the 1991 Collings Custom C10<\/a> (serial number 524) pictured here, James\u2019 main flattop for three decades, and the one he considered his best. Listening to any of the many studio recordings he made with the Collings, including \u201cTalco Girl,\u201d<\/a> it\u2019s easy to understand why the engineer preferred the instrument, with its great clarity, balance, and punch, for recording.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Collings<\/a>
Courtesy of Collings Guitars<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

James\u2019 C10 is among a handful of several builds that the Austin-based Collings made for local singer-songwriters when the shop was led by its founding luthier, Bill Collings, with only a couple of other employees. Instead of the usual natural or sunburst, James\u2019 example has an elegant opaque black finish, along with a snazzy pearloid pickguard and matching headstock veneer; and the interior bracing is straight, as opposed to the standard scalloped. \u201cWe made a similar one, but with a transparent blue finish, for another Austin performer, Champ Hood,\u201d says Bruce Van Wart, Collings\u2019 now retired master luthier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When James\u2019 C10 was completed, Bill Collings thought it would be good fun to surprise the guitarist with his new instrument at a gig. \u201cI remember bringing it down to him one weekend when he was playing at the Waterloo Ice House,\u201d Van Wart says. \u201cHe had a look that said, \u2018Oh no, I owe them a bunch of money now!\u2019 but took to the C10 right away.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Acoustic<\/a>\n

This article originally appeared in the May\/June 2023<\/a> issue of Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 1991 Collings Custom C10 (serial number 524) was James\u2019 main flattop for three decades, and the one he considered his best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":135569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"The 1991 Collings Custom C10 (serial number 524) was James\u2019 main flattop for three decades, and the one he considered his best.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1146],"tags":[524,1650],"ppma_author":[1541],"class_list":["post-135560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vintage-and-collectible-guitars","tag-great-acoustics","tag-may-june-2023"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/stev-james-custom-collings-c10-photo-Kirsten-Mohan.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1541,"user_id":24,"is_guest":0,"slug":"adam-perlmutterstringletter-com","display_name":"Adam Perlmutter","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Adam-Perlmutter.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"Perlmutter","first_name":"Adam","job_title":"","description":"Adam Perlmutter holds a bachelor of music degree from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a master's degree in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory. He is the editor of Acoustic Guitar<\/i>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135560"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141138,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135560\/revisions\/141138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135560"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=135560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}