Collings City Limits Aged Faded Cherry & Walnut w/ Throbaks

We celebrate "Lucy" with this City Limits, albeit with just a slight tweak or two.

In our latest edition of vintage-inspired Collings builds, we give you this Faded Cherry beauty! We here at TME are vintage guitar nuts, plain and simple. We're also major music nerds, and we always talk about our favorite players and their respective instruments.

One instrument that came up in conversation recently was George Harrison's "Lucy", the fabled late 50s Les Paul Goldtop that was refinished in Cherry at Gibson's Kalamazoo factory under Rick Derringer's ownership. After receiving it from Eric Clapton in 1968, George would go on to own the guitar for the rest of his life.

By Collings standards, the top on this CL shows some relatively moderate amount of figure. By our measure, however, it's right in line with what vintage aficionados would love to find hiding beneath an old 50s Goldtop LP finish. That's what we were going for with this build. The Walnut finished back and sides lean more traditional as well, and it's a classy look!

The cream pickup rings and pickguard are a nod to the past, while the black bonnet knobs and matching switch tip give it even more individuality. It strikes the perfect balance of traditional and modern, which is something Collings has been doing at a high level for decades.

We elected to have this CL loaded with Throbak DT102 MXV humbuckers - a first for a TME-spec'ed Collings build! The DT102s are amazing in this guitar, combining the sweetness and chime of a great A2 humbucker in the neck position with the fundamental power and punch of an A5 in the bridge. This guitar sounds unreal regardless of toggle position.

We're thrilled with how this City Limits came out, and we know its new owner will agree!