Best Dressed of 2024 goes to...

If you were to look this I-35 up on a menu, it would undoubtedly be named 'Wood Lover's Delight'. However, you won't find a build like this on ANY menu. This one-off Collings I-35 Deluxe was custom-built for NAMM 2024 and is about as dressed up as you'll ever see their flagship semi-hollow.

It's so hard to focus on just one aspect of this build, as there are knockout elements of this guitar everywhere you look. The Quilted Maple set for the top? What about the insanely rare Figured Mahogany body and neck? Maybe the gorgeous tortoiseshell binding and accents throughout? Or does the Iced Tea Sunburst perfectly highlighting all this exceptional wood really do it for you? We could go on and on and on, really.

Still, at its center, is a semi-hollow electric bursting with amazing tone that begs to be played just as much as it does to be aesthetically championed. The Throbak SLE101+ humbuckers have proven to be an excellent match for the I-35 - just a touch more output than the standard SLE101 set yields a bit more punch in overall response without compromising on clarity and openness.

Nobody really one-ups Collings except Collings, and the proof is right here in this NAMM build!