Comins Guitar Craft Series

Bill Comins may not be a name immediately recognizable to you, but to many "in the know" guitarists he is a well respected luthier, and craftsman of very high end archtop jazz guitars, nylon string acoustics and some solid bodies. Mr. Comins produces a limited number of pieces each year, and the price range is certainly out of reach of the average working musician or hobbyist. With that thought in mind, he began working with a South Korean guitar manufacturing facility on an affordable instrument to sell here in the U.S. The result is the Guitar Craft Series, two models of semi hollow guitars that are absolutely fantastic! Mr. Comins has designed the instruments himself and set a strict series of standards that the manufacturer must adhere to. Each guitar gets personally set up and inspected by him before they send off to the shop and it certainly shows. The guitars play perfectly out of the box, with a nice low action and would please even the most picky guitar player. The look of the instruments is another nice surprise, combining classic and modern aesthetics for a very sophisticated look. Little touches like the black, rubberized tuning machine heads, and the bound body, headstock and neck, make the guitar look much more expensive than it's price tag reveals. 


There are two models to choose from, with 5 colors available. The GCS-1 features a laminated flame maple top, laminated sapele back and sides, with a center block of solid wood, and a rosewood fingerboard. The GCS-1E is the same model but gives you a laminated spruce top, and an ebony fingerboard. These are hardtail guitars but you can add an optional bigsby, in case you need your tremolo fix. 

The pickups are custom made Kent Armstrong humbuckers, with a volume and tone for each one. One of the tone puts is push/pull and allows you to coil tap the humbuckers. I've never personally been a big fan of coil tap..I find that they never quite produce the sound that you want. Rather than get that true single coil "quack", you often just end up with a quieter pickup. As far as coil tapping goes however, these do a far better job than I've heard on other instruments. The humbuckers have quite a lot of punch and warmth to them, allowing for a more distinct and present tone when cut in half. 

Now, there may be some of you out there who see "made in korea" or "made in china" and this immediately turns you off to a guitar. I'll go into this notion a bit more in depth in another post, but I'm a firm believer in judging by how the guitar feels and sounds, and not where it's made. So many factories across the world are now making very high quality guitars, and I would count these as among the very top. The look, feel and sound are all top notch and so much more than one might expect from a non US made instrument. For those of us who want a classic looking, super versatile semi-hollow guitar and can't quite afford the price tags on a Gibson, or even a Collings, these axes fill the gap perfectly. 

The Comins Guitar Craft Series retails at $1599 for a hard tail, or $1899 with a bigsby. Both models come with a TKL hard shell case in a light brown tolex, that adds a nice bit of value to the guitar. More info on these guitars and all of Bill Comins' creations can be found at his website: www.cominsguitars.com

We have these for sale here at Rudy's, and I encourage you to pop by and check one out! I'll be happy to chat with you about them. Feel free to leave your thoughts as well! 

K.