Collings

"Thin, light, and exquisite, the City Limits Jazz commands attention. Built with a fully hollow one-piece Honduran mahogany body, carved European spruce top, and modern stylings, this sleek thin-bodied archtop is made for jazz."  - From the Collings Website

Over the last decade or so, we have observed that the once relatively obscure Collings brand has finally become more of a household name for guitar enthusiasts in general.  Still, considering that a major manufacturer like Martin, Gibson, or Taylor produces more guitars in approximately six months than Collings has made in its entire 50+ year existence, it’s not surprising that many folks have never experienced a Collings—there just aren’t many out there in the wild!  Then, even amongst those who are “in the know” when it comes to the exceptional quality of Collings flattops, electrics, and mandolins, many are still unaware of Bill Collings’ legacy in the realm of archtop guitars.  Here, he breathed rarified air and stood alongside the best luthiers of the modern era.

Decades ago now, we had the opportunity to meet Bill’s mother at a NAMM show.  During our conversation, she mentioned that one of Bill’s first builds (if not the first) was actually a mandolin, which demonstrates his keen interest in carved instruments from the outset.  In retrospect, considering his rare blend of inquisitive nature, innovative design sense, notorious meticulousness, and innate gift for voicing, it is perhaps no surprise that Bill would embrace the extreme challenge of building hand-carved archtop guitars.  Indeed, his prowess in this arena was such that he was one of twenty one luthiers selected to build an instrument for the Blue Guitar Collection that was commissioned by the late collector, Scott Chinery.  The Blue Guitars were all independent interpretations of the Blue Centura, made by Jimmy D’Aquisto., and, as such, this collection is now widely considered to be the most important collection of archtop guitars in the world.  Indeed, Bill Collings’ keen eye for aesthetic detail and tasteful modernity are perhaps best displayed on his carved instruments, where the simple curves of the instrument and a restrained approach to ornamentation immediately establish elegance and grace.  Along that line, upon examining a Collings archtop further, even design elements like his clever and highly practical floating pickguard, or his beautiful and stylish inlay motifs (e.g., the parallelograms seen on this CL Jazz, or the famous Broken Glass inlays seen on the Blue AT17), all represent the exceptional work of a master.

Given his responsibilities in building up and running a guitar company ,and the degree of focus required to produce a hand-carved archtop guitar, Bill Collings had extremely limited output.  And, while having a guitar company might theoretically afford one the staff to increase output, Bill’s standards were such that only one other employee was entrusted to help in the production of the archtop models, like the AT17 and AT16.  Thus, these models are exceedingly rare. In almost 35 years as a Collings dealer, we have only sold one each of these models; and, in retrospect, we kind of kick ourselves for having sold either of them!

Though not quite as rare as near-mythical AT16 and AT17 archtop models (and perhaps also cutaway dreadnoughts and 12-strings), the City Limits Jazz is also an extremely limited in terms of production numbers.  Only the top-skilled workers in each given department are involved in making these guitars; and, due to these workers’ responsibilities elsewhere, this makes for a slow build process.  Along that line, as of the arrival of this guitar in our store in August, 2025, Collings has produced a total of 201 City Limits Jazz models…, ever. Evidently, thirteen CL Jazz models are currently scheduled for production. Yet, as our previous examples have taken more than five years to arrive from the time of their order being placed, it’s fair to say that those that are presently scheduled may be a long time coming!  As evidenced by its serial number, SN. CLJ10040, this stunning CL Jazz was built in 2010, and it was the 40^th CL Jazz made.  Given such scarcity, as well as its manifest beauty, it is easy to understand why the City Limits Jazz is without question one of the most rare, expensive, and highly-prized Collings models.

Thanks to its carefully voiced hand-carved construction, the City Limits Jazz delivers an acoustic voice that is surprisingly robust and dynamic for a thinline hollowbody guitar.  Indeed, one can get so lost in the unamplified tone of this instrument that notions of plugging it in just drift away like falling leaves in a breeze of sonic reveries.  Moreover, the contouring of the thin body and the highly-refined late’50s Gibson-inspired deep C neck carve make for an instantly comfortable playing experience.  When plugged in, the acoustic refinement and responsiveness of this City Limits Jazz are simply, well…, amplified, in the purest sense.   Indeed, the acoustic properties of this guitar are well reflected by the innately detailed nature of the Jason Lollar Johnny Smith floating mini-humbucker.  Here, the player is afforded a great deal of tonal variety, thanks to a spot-on mixture of classic humbucker clarity and body with an enhanced brilliance and balance that is not typically achieved with a conventional humbucker in the neck position. 

In the end, this CL Jazz, like all Collings instruments, is a true achievement in craft; but, it is also a realization of Bill’s ultimate and rather pragmatic goal: to simply produce the absolute best quality musical tool possible.  In this respect, part of this guitar’s beauty (and that of Collings instruments, in general) is the fact that it reflects the character and integrity of a man who was most concerned with his instruments being high-quality rather than high-end.  The infusion of such core principals and humility in the building of a superb musical tool like this CL Jazz, is, in and of itself, most rare. Subsequently, and with some degree of irony, in our view, this guitar is elevated beyond the status of exceptionally rare musical tool to the highest class of pure functional art.

Condition

Since it was purchased from us in early 2011, this City Limits Jazz has been extremely well maintained.  That said, we note two shallow dents on the back of the neck: The most significant of these is located on the center of the neck between the 4^th and 5^th frets and measures approximately 4 mm in circumference. The second dent is also located in the center of the neck but situated between the 3^rd and 4^th fret—this dent is very shallow and nearly imperceptible, but its footprint measures approximately 2 mm in circumference.  Apart from these two dents, one could easily assume that this guitar is new.  NEAR MINT Condition  

• Hollowbody Thinline
• Hand-Carved Spruce Top
• Parallel Bracing
• Honduran Mahogany Body with Hand-Carved Back
• Bound (Non-Grained Ivoroid) S-Hole Soundholes
• Non-Grained Ivoroid Binding
• 4-Ply Black and White Top Purfling
• Amber Sunburst Top
• High Gloss Nitrocellulose Lacquer Body Finish
• Honduran Mahogany Neck
• Extra Long Mortise and Tenon Neck Joint
• C-Shape Neck Carve
• Ebony Fingerboard with 12” Radius
• Non-Grained Ivoroid Fingerboard and Headstock Binding
• 2-Ply Black/White Ivoroid Fingerboard and Headstock Purfling
• Deluxe Flared Haircut Headstock
• Ebony Headstock Veneer
• Mother of Pearl Headstock Logo and Parallelogram Inlay
• Mother of Pearl Parallelogram Fingerboard Inlays
• High Gloss Neck Finish
• Jason Lollar Johnny Smith Floating Neck Pickup
• Pickguard-Mounted Thumbwheel 500K Pots/.047 Ceramic Capacitor
• Ebony Adjustable Bridge
• Ebony Floating Tailpiece
• Ebony Floating Pickguard (Bound, Non-Grained Ivoroid)
• Nickel Schaller Tuning Machines with Ebony Buttons
• Bone Nut
• 1 11/16” Nut Width
• 2 3/16” String Spacing at the Bridge
• 25 1/2” Scale Length
• 5.33 lbs
• Original Ameritage Arched Top Hard Case