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Beautiful in its elegant simplicity

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• Review

The top is feathered around the edges to be slightly thinner and to allow the best possible vibration; it's also slightly convex for added rigidity, and the internal neck heel block is only glued to the back and sides so doesn't interfere with the top's vibrations.

Collings acoustics feature bolt-on necks rather than the traditional glued-in style. "Since the two bolts and threaded inserts are fixed into the heel, an area of potentially weak end-grain, Collings glues a half-inch birch dowel up into the heel before the end-cap is fitted, for the strongest possible joint," clarifies Chandler.

Another feature of Collings necks is a set of four steel strips embedded alongside the adjustable truss rod. According to Chandler this came from Bill Collings' research into vintage Martins, whose non-adjustable steel bar reinforcements tended to exclude dead spots. "This is part of the reason Collings guitars have such an even response throughout the tonal range," says Doug.

With its standard 43mm nut width and 'C-to-mild-V' neck shape the action is perfect. It seems effortless to play on the D'Addario 12-gauge strings and all who tried it agreed it made them feel like better players. Top-end access is naturally limited, but a cutaway is one of the many other upcharge options should you desire it.

Sounds

Adirondack's reputation for tone is well founded. And mated to this organic shellac finish, we find a guitar that genuinely sounds different. Fortunately we were in possession of a 1949 Martin 000-18 for sonic comparison – a folk-sized mahogany guitar not dissimilar to the Collings, although with a nitro-cellulose finish.

The Martin has genuine vintage tone that's edgy but warm, punchy yet sweet, and the OM1AV is remarkably similar. If anything its tone is more refined, with spankier highs and a quicker response to either pick or nail attack; there's perhaps a touch more strength in the bass too and string separation is remarkable.

The Martin was recently described by Stuart Ryan, the acoustic maestro of our sister magazine Guitar Techniques as, "possibly the best sounding acoustic I've ever played". And if the Collings pips it at the tonal post, then putting Granny up on Ebay starts to look like a realistic next move!

Here's where we try to justify the cost equivalent of another Collings OM1 (or a Fender USA Strat and Marshall stack), for that 'rare' Adirondack spruce top and 'special' shellac finish. It would seem impossible, were it not for the tangible difference you feel when you play this guitar.

Any standard OM1 would play as brilliantly – Collings is renowned for buttery smooth actions on all its guitars. But modern acoustics – especially the highest grade ones – often seem clinical and unfulfilling to this reviewer's ears. Where this one differs is that it sounds like you imagine the best original Martin OMs did 80 or so years ago.

We have bleated on about the 'law of diminishing returns' in reviews of expensive kit for years. But never has the term been so appropriate. For the gigantic extra outlay you get a palpably better sounding guitar, possibly even the best you've ever heard – by maybe 10 percent.

But whether you can justify spending so much on such a small difference – even though it could represent the Holy Grail of tone – only you'll know. All we can say is that, given a chance win on the Lotto, this OM1AV would be going nowhere!