My guitar collection - Acoustics
The natural compliment to a mahogany concert ukulele is one made with koa (‘K‘). And again, I have opted for the most austere appointments offered by Collings. Actually, it demonstrates how extraordinarily lucky I have been with my UT1K, where the koa used for the body shows a large amount of figure. The flame in the koa on this 4th ukulele I acquired looks much more pedestrian. But as with all Collings instruments in my collection, it is about the sound, not the looks. Of course, this 15” scale length ukulele has a tortoise with black and white purfling rosette, fan bracing, an East-Indian rosewood bridge with bone saddle and 1.73” string spacing. The Honduran mahogany neck has a C-shaped profile, 12” radius East-Indian rosewood fingerboard with ivoroid dot position markers, and 1⅜” wide bone nut. The “Single-Point” headstock has an East-Indian rosewood veneer with ivoroid Collings logo and 4:1 gear ratio Pegheds planetary gear tuning machines. The case is made by Ameritage. Here is a 2016 snapshot of the UC1K page on the old Collings website.
Collings UC1K
The story behind this ukulele
Ship date:
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I got my fourth ukulele, completing the set from David Kamerer on eBay. His pictures showed a color, like a grayish-orange, not doing this instrument justice. Its real color turns out to be much warmer and it even has some light figure, something completely hidden in the pictures. The extend of the figure is best judged by the picture of the back below. That is just the esthetics. I also learned that the inaccuracy on Collings’ Ukulele FAQ webpage (archived, 2024) on the location and kind of serial number leads to confusion. Because none was mentioned in the auction description nor photographed, I had asked David for the S/N. He had owned this ukulele for all this time time in the conviction they no longer had serial numbers because, beyond Bill’s signature, there was nothing else on the sticker. The ukulele had been packed for shipment already so he could not inspect the neck block. But there it was, clear as day, although hard to take a picture of. However, these are all peripheral concerns. More important is how it sounds and plays. Exactly as you expect from a higher end koa concert. Nice, loud, and even!
