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Collins CS32CE Electro-Acoustic Guitar

 

Review of the Collins CS32CE by The Man in the Jar

Features of the Collins CS32CE 

Tuners - Unbranded mini-tuners pulled the guitar smartly into tune. Soon after starting to play I retuned to open G and the transition was handled smoothly.

Headstock - Plain squared paddle headstock with 3-a-side.

Nut - Standard white plastic nut abuts the fretboard and is neatly cut.

Neck - The wood is not specified but through the blue finish it looks like maple or a close relative. The profile of the neck is surprisingly comfortable for such an inexpensive Chinese-made model. It reminded me of a slim Les Paul profile.

Fretboard - Quite a stripey-grained rosewood fretboard. The traditional dot markers are in white abalone and the board has a black binding. 

Frets - Thin frets that are nicely finished at the ends.

Action - The action is set on the high side. This is fine for open chord work with the occasional foray up as far as the 7th. Adjusting the action on acoustics is possible but not easy and not without risk. But I decided instead to play to the Collins' own character and tuned to open G tuning (D G D G B D). Donning a brass slide I found the set-up of the guitar to be perfect for bottleneck playing. 
I don't normally comment on the strings as I assume that everyone changes the strings on a new guitar as a matter of course. But I have noted on Chinese-made guitars across a number of manufacturers that the pre-loaded strings are of mediocre quality and beg to be changed.

Body - The body has a spruce top with mahogany back and sides in the form of laminates. The thinline body sits comfortably close against the player when seated. The single cutaway allows good access to the upper frets and I could keep my slide parallel right up to the 21st fret. The sound-hole is elliptical with a decal rosette, the body has white binding front and back which looks quite tasty with the blue-burst finish.

Bridge - Simple rosewood bridge with a plastic saddle which is compensated at the second string. The strings are anchored with traditional bridge-pins. 

Pickup - There's an active pickup under the bridge.

Controls - The control panel sits in the edge of the upper bout but there's no visible battery compartment. Instead the control panel housing has a spot marked on its edge with the instruction "push". I pushed this spot with end of a jackplug and initially thought I'd broken something as the control panel slumped slightly into the guitar. But all was OK, the control panel actually pivots down and around to reveal the battery holder on its underside. Once you've changed the battery simply rotate it back and snap the panel into place. The control panel itself has a handy battery check button that gives a red light when pressed if your battery is still healthy. There's a knob for Volume and four sliders that control Bass, Middle, Treble and Presence.   

Strap-buttons - One large metal strap button on the bottom of the guitar.

Output Jack - On the lower edge, mounted without a plate. 

Finish - In the manufacture of budget instruments there is always a tolerance of minor cosmetic finishing flaws. Considering the really low retail price of this guitar it would be churlish to take issue with that.

 

Sound of the Collins CS32CE

Acoustically the CS32 has an even-tempered tone. There's no gut-wobbling bass response simply because the construction methods necessary to extend into that sonic territory aren't used in guitars in this price range. New strings would add to the high end sparkle.
Plugged into a clean valve amp this balanced voice translated well but I was having trouble categorising it. That is until I started using the brass slide. There it was - a very Dobro-like sound coming from a very non-Dobro guitar. With a touch of bass boost, a little mid cut and presence to taste, I ended up with a lovely Delta slide sound with real vintage character.

 

Overall Impressions of the Collins CS32CE

For a beginner these guitars are bargain basement starters that allow you to amplify your instrument when required. But the real strength of the instrument lies in its usefulness as a slide guitar. Many guitarists haven't dabbled in slide because a guitar set up for slide playing doesn't easily revert for normal playing styles. The Collins CS32CE electro-acoustic guitar offers a solution. For not a lot of cash you get an attractive instrument that can stay tuned to your favourite open tuning so you can grab it anytime and play some Delta. Before you know it you'll have some slide ditties added to your set. Simply dial in a clean channel, plug in your Collins and get low and dirty with some Blues. 

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