❌SOLD❌ Collings D2H GVN Dreadnought Natural 2016

This is another fantastic piece – a Collings D2H GVN dreadnought, built during 2016 in Austin, Texas and in very clean condition.

Based on the classic square shoulder dreadnoughts that have been dominant since their introduction in the 1930’s, the Collings D2H GVN starts with the standard D2H. This example adds a German spruce top, a “Vintage Now” neck profile and “No Tongue Brace”. The sides, back and headplate are Indian Rosewood, with Mahogany for the body blocks and neck and Ebony for the fingerboard and bridge. Because it’s an D2H, it has Herringbone top purfling and a ‘zipper’ back strip. Tuners are Waverly open-gear models.

As with every Collings we have seen or handled, build and finish quality are hard to improve on. This 2016 Collings D2H GVN example is in very clean condition with just the lightest wear. Fret wear is minimal. The nitrocellulose lacquer finish is naturally sinking to match the grain of the woods.

The original Collings hard shell case is included.

Let’s have Collings explain the “No Tongue Brace” on this Collings D2H GVN:

“What is a tongue brace and why would I want to leave it out?

The tongue brace is a flat, thin brace that runs across a guitar’s upper bout underneath the tongue of the fingerboard. String tension is always pulling the neck and fingerboard towards the body of an acoustic guitar and a tongue brace helps to reinforce this area to prevent the top from cracking along side of the fingerboard tongue. This cracking is only a potential problem and one that most likely wouldn’t be an issue for 40 or 50 years. The tongue brace was originally developed in the late 1940’s after cracking occurred on some popular pre-war instruments.

There are a few reasons why people order guitars without tongue braces or remove them:

1) Some players believe that the absence of the tongue brace allows the top to vibrate more freely, and therefore produce a subtly more open sound.
2) Some players like to try and duplicate pre-war bracing designs as much as possible.
3) Clarence White’s 1935 D28 didn’t have a tongue brace. Many builders offer “Clarence White-style guitars” like our CW model in which we leave out the tongue brace.

In the past 25 years that we’ve been building the CW model, we’ve never had a problem with the top cracking along the edges of the tongue. In the long run, a tongue brace is a good safeguard against tension cracks, however if you would prefer to have it left out it should not appreciably affect the structural integrity of the guitar for many years.”

Here is what the builder has to say about the Collings D2H GVN:

“The square-shouldered 14-fret dreadnought is the most popular steel-string acoustic guitar body shape in the world. While Collings is certainly not the only company to build them, we bring a new tonal clarity to the depth and warmth usually associated with such a large, deep-bodied guitar.

Although its bass response makes the dreadnought ideal for vocal accompaniment, Collings versions are also often employed by bluegrass flatpickers who must compete with inherently louder instruments such as banjos and fiddles.

The wide range of woods and neck sizes offered allow dreadnought fans to find a Collings model ideally suited to their playing style and tonal preference.”