I feel very fortunate to be able to add a McCollum Grand Auditorium to my collection. I've been visiting Lance's web site since I first considered handmade guitars. This walnut and Italian GA is a wonderful instrument, and very seductive. The neck fits my hand perfectly, the action is easy, it's beautiful to look at, and the sound is inspiring. The notes have the weight and fatness of a guitar with a strong fundamental, but they're decorated by gorgeous overtones as well.
The Grand Auditorium is one of Lance McCollum's larger body sizes. Lance uses a slightly longer scale length of 25.75" which works well with slack key (lowered) tunings.
Lance goes all out for every detail.
I have to agree with Lance's label - it is a beautiful piece of sculpture, and it really does function!
My policy is that I never spend money on looks, only on sound and playability. Lynn accompanied me on the trip to select woods for this guitar, and she fell in love with this set of walnut. I was resisting, but Lance assured me that the figured wood also made better sounding guitars. Hey, what could I do???
The backstrip is a hairline strip of maple, dyed Lance's signature green. This design element is used all over the guitar.
A gracefully curved koa butt strip contrasts nicely with the curly walnut. The jack connects to a B-Band AST which I installed.
The curl and color in this set of walnut reminds many people of koa. The sound of the walnut is a bit like maple on steroids, fast and clear but more punchy than cutting.
Lance's work stands up to the closest scrutiny. He added a clear pickguard which could come in handy if I ever start using a flatpick again. This guitar really responds to flatpicking.
These pieces seem to have grown together, thanks to Lance's workmanship. The green purfling unifies the lines with a bit of whimsy. The fretboard binding style is one I've never seen before - the black edge is actually the fretboard showing through under the curly koa binding.
The heel cap is koa. The neck is mahogany, walnut, koa, walnut, mahogany.