My guitar collection - Acoustics
Instead of naming it “triple-0 14-fret”, this guitar shape has its own more familiar moniker: the Orchestra Model; Collings names it the same. The Orchestra Model is one of the most popular guitar shapes with dimensions of a 13¾” body width, 4” body depth, 19¼” body length, i.e. an inch shorter than the triple-0, and a 39¾” total length. Its scale is 25½” with 14 frets to the body. Hence, not as bulky as a dreadnought while retaining the same scale but still large enough to produce plenty of volume. It is no surprise the Orchestra Model is very popular among fingerstyle players. The dearly departed Pete Huttlinger (1961-2016) was one of them and had settled on the Collings version. For recording and on stage, he used either a Sitka spruce top OM1 or an OM1A with an Adirondack spruce top, both having a cutaway. Ever since they met, Bill Collings and Pete decided to collaborate on creating the first Collings limited edition model, a run of 50 Pete Huttlinger Signature OM1 guitars released in July 2011. This model also remained to be Collings’ only Signature model until they released the Julian Lage Signature OM1 in 2017, the inspiration behind the Traditional Build series. Like the OM1 Pete called “God’s guitar”, his signature model has a Sitka spruce top (but is also available with Adirondack spruce), the highest quality Honduran mahogany back and sides with walnut backstrip, a Venetian cutaway, Mother-of-Pearl (MOP) Peter J(ohn) Huttlinger signature inlaid in the fretboard before the 12th fret, and a 1¾” wide bone nut. Otherwise, the specs are identical to the “ordinary” OM1, i.e tortoise body binding with B/W/B/W top purfling, B/W purfling rosette, ebony belly-style bridge with bone saddle, Honduran mahogany neck with a modified V profile, 14”-26” compound radius ebony fingerboard with MOP short dot inlays, and a square headstock with ebony overlay with MOP logo and 16:1 gear ratio Waverly nickel-plated tuning machines with butterbean buttons. After Pete’s passing, his long-time cardiologist Dr Frank Fish convinced Collings to create a second limited run unifying guitar playing and Pete’s other passion: fly fishing. This version was introduced at the 2017 Winter NAMM and differs from the first run in replacing the fretboard dot position markers with 3 hand-engraved fly fishing related inlays: a trout before the 7th fret and 2 different lures before the 5th and 9th frets. Whereas the first run between 2011 and 2013 was truly limited to 50, how many are/will be produced in the second run is yet unknown. At the time of writing (2025), I have seen #48 with S/N 35074. For more information on this very special model, see this still existing page on the Collings website:
https://collingsguitars.com/acoustics/pete-huttlinger-signature-om1/.
Collings Pete Huttlinger Signature OM1
The story behind this guitar
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I trust you have heard of John Mayer and that he has his own signature Martin OM, though with Indian rosewood back and sides. I read an interview where he extolled the virtues of having a smaller box, as did many other fingerstyle players in other interviews. I explain in the writeup for my 0002HA SB Cut how that guitar became my first small(er) body. As one might have noticed, many others have been added to the collection in the intervening decades. And this was the last one. But why not a plain OM, either 1-style or 2-style? Or something closer to Mr Mayer’s Martin?That has to do with one particular tune I heard around 2009-2010: Pete Huttlinger playing Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. Beyond the history of the arrangement, the linked video shows not only how well Pete can play but also his great sense of humor. When I started seriously looking for a Pete Huttlinger Signature, inspired by reading this review in Acoustic Guitar once more, Emerald City Guitars listed #19 from the first run but Reverb listed one from the second run with the nicer fretboard inlays, both for about the same price. So I went with Elliott Kuecker’s listing, #17 in the 2nd Limited Edition Series, after a very nice message exchange. The sequence number is found on an additional rectangular sticker on the upper bass side visible through the soundhole. That sticker is also adorned with Pete’s signature, even though Collings’ 2017 Winter NAMM announcement states this would only be true for the first 15. The handwritten ‘2nd’ clearly indicates these stickers are leftovers from the first run. As an added bonus, this guitar came in a Traditional OHSC (S/N OM-000422). So you own no Traditional cases at all, so you have three! And the guitar sounds marvelous, woody and warm. My absolute favorite fingerstyle guitar, nowadays frequently in tow when visiting friends so I can entertain the crowd.
The story behind this guitar
September 13, 2017
27180
#17 in the 2nd Limited Edition Series
