My guitar collection - Acoustics
In the line of archtops offered by Collings, the AT-16 takes a special place. All but this model, i.e. the AT-16 Deluxe, AT-17, and AT-18 are your “typical” jazz archtops ornately decked out and with a cutaway. The AT-16 is different in that it is intended to be a true alternative to a flattop and played as such but with its own response and sound. The guitar has neither a cutaway nor an ebony tailpiece, harkening back to the early archtops appearing in the 1920s. Not being a true jazz player, that feature makes this model interesting to me. As the name implies, its body width is 16” with a body length of 20½” and a depth of 2⅞”, built out of a fully-carved premium Sitka spruce top with fully-hollow X-bracing and f-holes, bound ebony pickguard, ebony adjustable bridge, fully-carved highly figured maple back and sides, and grained ivoroid full body binding, all in a high-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish, usually a gorgeous sunburst. As an example of the high standards Bill Collings set for archtops he built himself, and in typical Bill fashion, he machined the nickel trapeze-style tailpiece himself. The premium figured maple neck has an archtop C-shape profile and matching (sunburst) finish. The 14”-26” compound radius ebony fingerboard has grained ivoroid binding and Mother-of-Pearl (MOP) graduated dots for position markers. With a 111⁄16“ wide bone nut the scale length is 25½”, the same as for a large body acoustic. The bound headstock has the Collings haircut, an ebony veneer with MOP logo, ebony truss rod cover, and Waverly nickel-plated tuning machines with ivoroid buttons. With all this, the total length of the guitar is 41⅛”. To get an idea of the wide range of genres one can play on this instrument, I can highly recommend this video by guitarist Jim Kelly for The Music Emporium. Although at the time of writing (Halloween 2025) Collings does not take any orders, you can browse the epitome of Bill’s guitar building prowess by checking the Archtops page on their website. For the AT-16 in specific, visit this webpage:
Collings AT-16
The story behind this archtop
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A developing adventure. I would love to at least have played one, let alone own. But as related on the AT-17 page, Collings archtops of any kind are rare and only appear sparingly in a store and/or marketplace, certainly now Collings (temporarily?) does not take orders for them anymore. At the time of writing, Reverb lists an AT-16 in my native The Netherlands for just north of $37k. Reason enough to move back? Or pay the old stomping grounds a visit? Who knows!
