Collings vs. Santa Cruz
 

Know they are both great shops but if you had to choose which would you choose and why?

Coin flip. Depend on the individual guitar.

I have 3 wonderful Collings guitars which have made me a die hard Collings fan. However, I agree with HHP 100%. Collings, Santa Cruz, Bourgeois, Huss & Dalton, Froggy Bottom, Goodall, Merrill, Martin Authentics...flip a coin. They all make outstanding, superb, guitars.



Tom

Both nicely built and great sounding, although I've heard guitars as good as either for less money. I vote Santa Cruz b/e they don't upcharge for lefties.

It's so obvious... just like choosing between Coke and Pepsi!
;)

I agree, different individual guitars, different answer.

I still prefer Martins and now own a Collings, and add Bourgeois to the Martin/Bourgeois/Collings/Santa Cruz/H&D lineup, they all make great guitars.

The problem these days isn't finding great guitars, it's finding too many..................;). Just ask my wife!

Slight nod to Collings dreads, SCGC OMs.

I own a Collings OM1A deep body that I really enjoy. However, I have recently played some outstanding examples of Santa Cruz guitars, too. I think it's a toss-up and depends on the particular guitar and your playing style.

- Glenn

I voted not sure b/c I really think it comes down to how the individual guitar lines up with individual tastes.

Have to give the nod to SC - they're alot closer.

They're both makers of impressive instruments. I gave the nod to SCGC because more of their instruments I've played seem balanced or not having spikes in some tones, because some of their standard models have been so impressive thus being relative bargains, and some pre-sales queries to the firms yielded impressive responses from SCGC that included Richard himself.

I still go with the instrument more than the maker and will now confess that my SCGC OMS has stopped GAS and initiated sales of other guitars like no other.

;)

I own and travel w/ my "little" SCGC 00-28, that being said and in my experience, I've found more consistency in the SCs.

Traveling for work, I always made sure I was able to check-out the high-end acoustic dealers throughout the States. Everyone from Dream Guitars in North Carolina to Eric Schoenberg's beautiful, quaint shop in Tiburon, CA. I have been fortunate to play many exceptionally fine guitars, luthier built, boutique shops and larger builders. For example, I have found the consistency amongst Martin's to be outstanding, in fact, the most consistent! As for Collings, they are almost always beautiful to look at, but rarely match their visual splendor when played, the exception being when you do find a "good one" it's not simply good, it's bloody stellar! The Santa Cruz's, while not as visually striking, always seem to deliver the sound/feel/tones that I'm looking for (consistency), I would describe it as a "working man's" instrument.

Santa Cruz. Both companies make really nice guitars, but Santa Cruz supports the AGF.

...i like Santa Cruz guitars for their light open build which gives them a more played in sound right out of the box.....i have played only a few Collings guitars but i have ab'ed them in shops with SC's and a find them to be a bit stiffer and more strident in comparison...i'm sure there are exceptions to the rule in both directions...as for fit and finish as well as playability i'd give the edge to Collings...

I have played more SCGC gits that I like than Collings, but when I run across an outstanding Collings it's very impressive.

But I would vote SCGC in the end: It's made in California where all the best guitars are made :D

Santa Cruz... Every day of the week and twice on Sunday...

Chris

I remember looking for the perfect spruce/rosewood OM one day at Mandolin Brothers in NY. I test drove 4-5 specimens of both builders, and I loved them all. The Collings guitars sounded brighter, more chimey and contemporary, while the Santa Cruz guitars sounded woodier and warmer with more of a vintage vibe. Couldn't make up my mind at the end of the day. However, I found a breath of fresh air that same day in a lowly Martin OM-21 (and I'm not a huge Martin fan), which on that day came as close to the perfect spruce/rosewood OM that lived in my mind's "ear"! So as they say, "on any given day...". Why quibble? They're all great guitars - it's simply a matter of personal taste, don't you think?

I agree with this statement 100%

Collings.
Prefer the tone.

I don't think that you could go wrong with either one, they both do a great job, there are a lot of great guitar builders out there right now. What a time to play acoustic guitars Hhmmm :wink:

I'll have to go with Collings. I've only sampled one Santa Cruz out of a couple dozen that really made me sit up and take notice ... but I own a Collings that is still improving every year, and it was outstanding from the first time I played it. Very few guitars have so impressed me that I've been compelled to haul out the credit card and take one home after the first hour of play, and I check out guitars in music stores every chance I get. More often than not, I'll walk out without a backwards glance, but the Collings had me convinced of its relative merits very rapidly.

The Santa Cruz I played was nearly that good in many respects, but not quite. If it had been cheaper, I would have changed my mind, but in order to get it, I would have been forced to sell the Collings, and it would take one hell of an incredible instrument to break my lock on that guitar. I've played other new Collings guitars that were not anywhere as good as that particular Santa Cruz, but none of them, the Santa Cruz included, were even in the same ball park as my Collings, not when it comes to sheer tone, balance, dynamic range, projection, sustain, and playability.

But ... if I had never played the Collings first, that Santa Cruz would be in my music room, even as we speak. It was a fine instrument, and the best of at least fifty guitars that I played on that day, while cruising a Vintage Expo.

... JT

Both make great guitars. The Collings CJ is my favorite...

Collings. Just my personal preference in tone and playability.

Collings, for a number of reasons.

1. They're in Austin, about 10 miles from me. Greatest city on earth :)

2. I own one, and since I have, I haven't wanted anything else.

3. They make the C-10, which Santa Cruz can't compete with.

Just wondering, which SC model did you try?

Were you not being politically correct? :D

I've played some pretty nice Collings guitars. I have yet to play a bad Santa Cruz guitar! To me the Santa Cruz guitars feel more hand built buy luthiers and the Collings feel more built by CNC machines, like Taylors do. I know they both use CNC machines and a lot of handbuilt stages in making their guitars. I prefer Santa Cruz overall. My favorite Santa Cruz models are the 12 Fret D and the F. I've owned 12 different Santa Cruz guitars and they have all been knock outs!

It was a Vintage Artist, with a red spruce top and a sunburst. I've not seen another like it since. I assumed at the time that it was some kind of custom order. It was the lightest guitar (in weight) I think I've ever picked up; so light, I wondered later if it would hold up over time.

Sure sounded really good, though ... and had excellent playability for a guitar with a factory set-up.

... JT

I firmly believe in supporting our Texas economy, but between Collings and Santa Cruz, we* would purchase a Santa Cruz Dread Pre War.


* My wife gets the nice acoustics :guitar:, I go for used affordable electrics :ha:.

Their both great guitars -kinda like deciding which one of your children is the favorite. Glad im not you !