Does anyone know if there have been any structural changes since they began building them? I know they went from Schaller to Gotoh, and may have changed tuners again recently (not counting fitting of Waverlys to the VD).
On mine (2003), the original Schallers had buttons that always slipped and had to be constantly reglued. On a visit to them, I mentioned this to Bill and he gave me a set of Gotohs which I gathered that they had switched to. I found that the Gotohs were a little rough in places so I made the switch to Wavs (which I love).
Did the Wavs fit the same holes?
Yep.
Ditto on the Schallers. I have a 2003 MF-5 with the same issue and I'm kinda surprised as I always thought highly of Schallers on my guitars. I've been living with the button on the 2nd D string slipping for the past 2-3 years and I guess I'm just too lazy to complain to Collings about it. You would think they would go for a more high-quality mechanism on a $7000+ mandolin. Mike - did you install the Waverly's yourself?
Isn't there a lifetime warranty on workmanship and materials from Collings?
When I told BC about my problem with the Schallers I got them impression that they had received other complaints about them. That's when he gave me the Gotohs, which they use now apparently. I had "my tech" install them I have a good longstanding relationship with the Acoustic Music Shop in Edmonton and Rod does any work needed on my instruments.
Hmm...so you say that Gotoh are their 'go-to' tuners, eh?
Don't know for sure, seems that they might be.
My new MF came with Elite tuners.
How do you tell what brand they are? I think mine are Go-to's but I see no name on them. My MT is two years old.
My MT-1 has a bolt-on neck. Do they still do this on mandolins?
I've seen a lot of electric mandolins with a bolt-on neck. Not so many acoustics..
I figured that they tried the bolt-on neck approach with the MT-1's but went to glued necks with the MT.
What would a 2005 MF5 have?
I just took my MF #217 in to get some fretwork and a once-over. Apparently they moved to a single-footed bridge and recommended that I have them replace the original, which was double-footed. So I now have an 04' mandolin with a brand new bridge.