When Collings Guitars founder Bill Collings found out that long-time Collings player Pete Huttlinger was facing a heavy load of medical bills after suffering a stroke in 2010, he decided to build a batch of 50 signature models, with a significant portion from each sale going toward Pete’s recovery fund. Pete eventually bounced back and returned to his career as a touring fingerstyle guitarist and session player, until his life-long struggle with congenital heart issues caused a second stroke in 2016, leading to his death at the age of 54. We recently came across a 2012 Collings OM1 Pete Huttlinger at Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, California. In this video, Peghead Nation instructor Doug Young demonstrates the guitar.
The Collings OM1 Pete Huttlinger is based on the standard OM1 (a mahogany style-18 OM with a cutaway) that Pete played for many years. The early signature models were available with either a Sitka or Adirondack spruce top; our demo guitar’s top is Sitka. The guitar also includes Pete’s signature inlaid at the 12th fret and an internal label hand-signed by Pete.
Although neither Pete nor Bill Collings are still with us (Collings passed in 2017), the signature model continues to be available. The current OM1 Pete Huttlinger model reflects one of Pete’s passions, with a fly-fishing inlay theme, and a portion of the proceeds of the model are donated to the Pete Huttlinger Fund for Adult Congenital Cardiac Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Although more than ten years old, our demo guitar (which is number 15 of the original run of 50) doesn’t show signs of heavy use. It has the open, mature sound of a played-in instrument, and has wonderful clarity, balance, and dynamics. It’s a fantastic fingerstyle guitar, which Doug demonstrates by playing a bit of Pete’s composition “Darcy’s Guitar” in standard tuning, as well as Doug’s DADGAD arrangement of “The Water Is Wide.”
To study with Doug, enroll in his Alternate Tunings Fingerstyle Guitar course now!
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