So long...it's been good to know you!

Hello folks, I am Lew Collins' brother, Bruce, from Mission Amps / Stage 5 Amps.
So, you all know by now, my brother Lew passed away on Dec 19th, 23 from this God awful lymphoma cancer.
He made a fantastic fight of it for over 12 years.

My wife and I were with Lew, at his bedside, in his home for the last hours here on Earth and he passed way peacfully.
Exactly the way he wanted it,
But I must tell you all that right up to the very late evening before he passed away, this group was on his mind and he wanted to let you all know how much he greatly enjoyed this forum. He was going blind that last few weeks and had a very hard time reading and typing.
He was sorry he was not able to respond to any late comments. He really wanted to, ut just couldn't do it.
Beleive me, he was a difficult person to satisfy or to respect and stay with any self help guitar or amp groups!
So you guys must be something really special and the family and I want to let you know how much we appreciate the
wonderful relationship you all shared with Lew...

He left me rather loose instructions on what to do with all his musical collection (even mentioning this PRS group).
I have been going through all his gear over the last few weeks.
I recently got all his amps and guitars home and there is a fair number of PRS guitars here. Some are in various stages of being hot rodded and some are gig ready with some hot pickup, volume and tone mods. He had "mod" notes of what he was doing, in most of the guitar cases.
I thought I was bad about never being 100% happy with my amp mods but as you might guess, Lew was quite the guitar mod guru
and has some seriously killer guitars.
He was a fabluous player and his instrumentation background is amazing and was friends with some of the most popular pickup builders and guitar builders you proably all know!

Bottom line:
There are boxes and boxes of parts....PRS, Fender and Gibson ... pickups, pickguards, necks, bodys and a few nearly completed PRS guitars here that I need to figure out what to do with.
I will come back sometime in the early-mid spring to list what he had and or what ever I can get put back together.... as he thought there might be a few players here insterested in his modded guitars.

Thanks again for all the nice comments and condolances!
Cheers for now and Play LOUD!

Bruce
 
Bruce Collins said:
Hello folks, I am Lew Collins' brother, Bruce, from Mission Amps / Stage 5 Amps.
Click to expand...
Can't thank you enough for posting this Bruce. Unfortunately, Lew and I didn't really start to get to know each other til right near the end. We had a PM thread going discussing several guitar, amp and music topics. He told me he was having too much trouble reading because of his vision, and his replies came slower til they stopped. I'm so sorry I didn't get to know him better sooner, but glad that I finally did.

Our thoughts are prayers continue to go out to your family and friends. We miss your brother. He was a good dude and a valued member of our community here.

Thanks again for posting this!

RIP Brother Lew!
 
Bruce Collins said:
Hello folks, I am Lew Collins' brother, Bruce, from Mission Amps / Stage 5 Amps.
So, you all know by now, my brother Lew passed away on Dec 19th, 23 from this God awful lymphoma cancer.
He made a fantastic fight of it for over 12 years.

My wife and I were with Lew, at his bedside, in his home for the last hours here on Earth and he passed way peacfully.
Exactly the way he wanted it,
But I must tell you all that right up to the very late evening before he passed away, this group was on his mind and he wanted to let you all know how much he greatly enjoyed this forum. He was going blind that last few weeks and had a very hard time reading and typing.
He was sorry he was not able to respond to any late comments. He really wanted to, ut just couldn't do it.
Beleive me, he was a difficult person to satisfy or to respect and stay with any self help guitar or amp groups!
So you guys must be something really special and the family and I want to let you know how much we appreciate the
wonderful relationship you all shared with Lew...

He left me rather loose instructions on what to do with all his musical collection (even mentioning this PRS group).
I have been going through all his gear over the last few weeks.
I recently got all his amps and guitars home and there is a fair number of PRS guitars here. Some are in various stages of being hot rodded and some are gig ready with some hot pickup, volume and tone mods. He had "mod" notes of what he was doing, in most of the guitar cases.
I thought I was bad about never being 100% happy with my amp mods but as you might guess, Lew was quite the guitar mod guru
and has some seriously killer guitars.
He was a fabluous player and his instrumentation background is amazing and was friends with some of the most popular pickup builders and guitar builders you proably all know!

Bottom line:
There are boxes and boxes of parts....PRS, Fender and Gibson ... pickups, pickguards, necks, bodys and a few nearly completed PRS guitars here that I need to figure out what to do with.
I will come back sometime in the early-mid spring to list what he had and or what ever I can get put back together.... as he thought there might be a few players here insterested in his modded guitars.

Thanks again for all the nice comments and condolances!
Cheers for now and Play LOUD!

Bruce
Click to expand...
Hi Bruce,
Your brother was a great guy, and always helpful.
Thank you very much for letting us know, and keeping us all informed.
All the best,
Dave.
 
Bruce, thanks so much for replying to me earlier this month and thanks for sharing with us today.

Again please accept my sincerest condolences to you and your family.

Lew was an avid participant on the forum and was a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience.
 
Alnus Rubra said:
Bruce, thanks so much for replying to me earlier this month and thanks for sharing with us today.

Again please accept my sincerest condolences to you and your family.

Lew was an avid participant on the forum and was a wealth of knowledge, expertise and experience.
Click to expand...
Thanks for responding to the group for me.... we were all a little raw from he passing and it was good of you to offer to update
the status of Lew to the group for us.
 
Sincere condolences to you and the rest of Lew's family and friends, Bruce. We appreciate the updates because it's always difficult when a forum member leaves and we don't know what's happened to them. Your brother was definitely appreciated here, and he'll be missed. Very glad to hear he didn't suffer at the end.
 
Bruce Collins said:
Hello folks, I am Lew Collins' brother, Bruce, from Mission Amps / Stage 5 Amps.
So, you all know by now, my brother Lew passed away on Dec 19th, 23 from this God awful lymphoma cancer.
He made a fantastic fight of it for over 12 years.

My wife and I were with Lew, at his bedside, in his home for the last hours here on Earth and he passed way peacfully.
Exactly the way he wanted it,
But I must tell you all that right up to the very late evening before he passed away, this group was on his mind and he wanted to let you all know how much he greatly enjoyed this forum. He was going blind that last few weeks and had a very hard time reading and typing.
He was sorry he was not able to respond to any late comments. He really wanted to, ut just couldn't do it.
Beleive me, he was a difficult person to satisfy or to respect and stay with any self help guitar or amp groups!
So you guys must be something really special and the family and I want to let you know how much we appreciate the
wonderful relationship you all shared with Lew...

He left me rather loose instructions on what to do with all his musical collection (even mentioning this PRS group).
I have been going through all his gear over the last few weeks.
I recently got all his amps and guitars home and there is a fair number of PRS guitars here. Some are in various stages of being hot rodded and some are gig ready with some hot pickup, volume and tone mods. He had "mod" notes of what he was doing, in most of the guitar cases.
I thought I was bad about never being 100% happy with my amp mods but as you might guess, Lew was quite the guitar mod guru
and has some seriously killer guitars.
He was a fabluous player and his instrumentation background is amazing and was friends with some of the most popular pickup builders and guitar builders you proably all know!

Bottom line:
There are boxes and boxes of parts....PRS, Fender and Gibson ... pickups, pickguards, necks, bodys and a few nearly completed PRS guitars here that I need to figure out what to do with.
I will come back sometime in the early-mid spring to list what he had and or what ever I can get put back together.... as he thought there might be a few players here insterested in his modded guitars.

Thanks again for all the nice comments and condolances!
Cheers for now and Play LOUD!

Bruce
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting here. Lew was a great part of our online family here. We have had many conversations bout pickups and magnets along with guitars in general. He definitely had a great passion for the instrument and getting the most out of any guitar by hot rodding it. We are all going to miss seeing his posts.

Let us know if there is anything we can do to help you organize things and value them.
 
Bruce Collins said:
Hello folks, I am Lew Collins' brother, Bruce, from Mission Amps / Stage 5 Amps.
So, you all know by now, my brother Lew passed away on Dec 19th, 23 from this God awful lymphoma cancer.
He made a fantastic fight of it for over 12 years.

My wife and I were with Lew, at his bedside, in his home for the last hours here on Earth and he passed way peacfully.
Exactly the way he wanted it,
But I must tell you all that right up to the very late evening before he passed away, this group was on his mind and he wanted to let you all know how much he greatly enjoyed this forum. He was going blind that last few weeks and had a very hard time reading and typing.
He was sorry he was not able to respond to any late comments. He really wanted to, ut just couldn't do it.
Beleive me, he was a difficult person to satisfy or to respect and stay with any self help guitar or amp groups!
So you guys must be something really special and the family and I want to let you know how much we appreciate the
wonderful relationship you all shared with Lew...

He left me rather loose instructions on what to do with all his musical collection (even mentioning this PRS group).
I have been going through all his gear over the last few weeks.
I recently got all his amps and guitars home and there is a fair number of PRS guitars here. Some are in various stages of being hot rodded and some are gig ready with some hot pickup, volume and tone mods. He had "mod" notes of what he was doing, in most of the guitar cases.
I thought I was bad about never being 100% happy with my amp mods but as you might guess, Lew was quite the guitar mod guru
and has some seriously killer guitars.
He was a fabluous player and his instrumentation background is amazing and was friends with some of the most popular pickup builders and guitar builders you proably all know!

Bottom line:
There are boxes and boxes of parts....PRS, Fender and Gibson ... pickups, pickguards, necks, bodys and a few nearly completed PRS guitars here that I need to figure out what to do with.
I will come back sometime in the early-mid spring to list what he had and or what ever I can get put back together.... as he thought there might be a few players here insterested in his modded guitars.

Thanks again for all the nice comments and condolances!
Cheers for now and Play LOUD!

Bruce
Click to expand...
I am so sorry for your loss, Bruce.
I lost my father to lymphoma cancer 15 years ago after his 15 year battle...

I am a newer member and was excited to correspond with your brother as a fellow builder and hotrodder. Sadly, time is a thief that conspires against us all.

One of his last threads was about a rosewood neck he had purchased...
Respectfully...if possible, I would like to purchase that neck and build it as a tribute to Lew, with your input as to his tastes or plans.
 
Last edited:
Bruce Collins said:
Hello folks, I am Lew Collins' brother, Bruce, from Mission Amps / Stage 5 Amps.
So, you all know by now, my brother Lew passed away on Dec 19th, 23 from this God awful lymphoma cancer.
He made a fantastic fight of it for over 12 years.

My wife and I were with Lew, at his bedside, in his home for the last hours here on Earth and he passed way peacfully.
Exactly the way he wanted it,
But I must tell you all that right up to the very late evening before he passed away, this group was on his mind and he wanted to let you all know how much he greatly enjoyed this forum. He was going blind that last few weeks and had a very hard time reading and typing.
He was sorry he was not able to respond to any late comments. He really wanted to, ut just couldn't do it.
Beleive me, he was a difficult person to satisfy or to respect and stay with any self help guitar or amp groups!
So you guys must be something really special and the family and I want to let you know how much we appreciate the
wonderful relationship you all shared with Lew...

He left me rather loose instructions on what to do with all his musical collection (even mentioning this PRS group).
I have been going through all his gear over the last few weeks.
I recently got all his amps and guitars home and there is a fair number of PRS guitars here. Some are in various stages of being hot rodded and some are gig ready with some hot pickup, volume and tone mods. He had "mod" notes of what he was doing, in most of the guitar cases.
I thought I was bad about never being 100% happy with my amp mods but as you might guess, Lew was quite the guitar mod guru
and has some seriously killer guitars.
He was a fabluous player and his instrumentation background is amazing and was friends with some of the most popular pickup builders and guitar builders you proably all know!

Bottom line:
There are boxes and boxes of parts....PRS, Fender and Gibson ... pickups, pickguards, necks, bodys and a few nearly completed PRS guitars here that I need to figure out what to do with.
I will come back sometime in the early-mid spring to list what he had and or what ever I can get put back together.... as he thought there might be a few players here insterested in his modded guitars.

Thanks again for all the nice comments and condolances!
Cheers for now and Play LOUD!

Bruce
Click to expand...
I'm sorry for your loss, Bruce. I hope you are doing ok. Thank you very much for this post.
 
I am sorry for your loss. I did not know that you were Lew's brother. I acquired a 3-prong convenience outlet for a blackface Princeton I was bringing up to modern safety standards in 1999 from you. I see that you are still at it. I gifted a prototype amp that I scratch built in 1997 to Clarence "The Bluesman" Turner when I moved out of Maryland a few years ago. The 90s was a fun decade to be involved in amp construction. There were no paint-by-the-numbers kits. It was like being part of a mad monk squad.
 
I'm so sorry you lost you brother and that I had not checked on there s thread for so long. My wishes are very belated.

Lew was an active participant in forum suddenly and it seems after a long hiatus recently and I was not familiar with him. His sharing of guitars, pickups and fine figured wooden objects was always an enjoyable read. Its difficult to tell the state of the person behind the posts, and it seems he kept it up as long as was able with little deterrence.

Thanks for letting us know and continuing to update. I'm sure many folks in n this board will help identify and instruct for putting things together.

Too many times people disappear with no comment or mention. I very much appreciate giving us this closure. Lew was not the only board member to pass this year.

In closing, condolences and prayers for you and other members of Lew's family. His energy will be missed.

Thank you good sir.
 
Thanks so much for sharing Bruce. My thoughts & prayers for you and your family getting through these difficult times.

I had the good fortune to share a parallel path with Lew in extending our guitar collections last year with PRS versions of a Les Paul. He loved his quartet of Bernie Marsdens, all getting different pickups and some Lew mods that you referred to. I got a trio of SE245s, which is the base model for the Bernie Marsden. Mine also got new pickups from Wolfe, one of Lew's pickup buddies who made a set for one of his Bernies IIRC.

One way our paths diverged was last summer when we both also got a Stripped 58, the highly regarded upscale American 'Core' version of our Korean SE245/Bernie Marsden models. Mine is is the best guitar in my collection. In a testament to his modding expertise, he had tweaked his Bernies so well that he liked them better than the Stripped 58 which he then sold. They must be killer guitars.

Great guy and I'm so glad to have known him.
 
Bruce Collins said:
Hello folks, I am Lew Collins' brother, Bruce, from Mission Amps / Stage 5 Amps.
So, you all know by now, my brother Lew passed away on Dec 19th, 23 from this God awful lymphoma cancer.
He made a fantastic fight of it for over 12 years.

My wife and I were with Lew, at his bedside, in his home for the last hours here on Earth and he passed way peacfully.
Exactly the way he wanted it,
But I must tell you all that right up to the very late evening before he passed away, this group was on his mind and he wanted to let you all know how much he greatly enjoyed this forum. He was going blind that last few weeks and had a very hard time reading and typing.
He was sorry he was not able to respond to any late comments. He really wanted to, ut just couldn't do it.
Beleive me, he was a difficult person to satisfy or to respect and stay with any self help guitar or amp groups!
So you guys must be something really special and the family and I want to let you know how much we appreciate the
wonderful relationship you all shared with Lew...

He left me rather loose instructions on what to do with all his musical collection (even mentioning this PRS group).
I have been going through all his gear over the last few weeks.
I recently got all his amps and guitars home and there is a fair number of PRS guitars here. Some are in various stages of being hot rodded and some are gig ready with some hot pickup, volume and tone mods. He had "mod" notes of what he was doing, in most of the guitar cases.
I thought I was bad about never being 100% happy with my amp mods but as you might guess, Lew was quite the guitar mod guru
and has some seriously killer guitars.
He was a fabluous player and his instrumentation background is amazing and was friends with some of the most popular pickup builders and guitar builders you proably all know!

Bottom line:
There are boxes and boxes of parts....PRS, Fender and Gibson ... pickups, pickguards, necks, bodys and a few nearly completed PRS guitars here that I need to figure out what to do with.
I will come back sometime in the early-mid spring to list what he had and or what ever I can get put back together.... as he thought there might be a few players here insterested in his modded guitars.

Thanks again for all the nice comments and condolances!
Cheers for now and Play LOUD!

Bruce
Click to expand...
It was a pleasure getting to know your brother! Sad that he is gone just after getting to know and really like him ;~(( Condolences to you and all of Lew's family and friends!

I last conversed with Lew on Dec 12, 2023. I had been helping him with the headstock logo on the Birthday guitar he had built for Laura Lee! I don't know if he had finished that, but if it is or does get finished, I would love to see a picture of the final product. He really pushed it right to the end, with the amp buys, amp repairs, guitar builds, the the last moments of his life which I think is cool as F you C K! I had also been writing back and forth with Lew about purchasing one of the Bernie's, but we never got anywhere to talking price or anything, and I got no business buying a guitar right now! I will be interested to see what is available once you get it all organized. Keep in mind, the PRS Forum here has a policy against sales, so you should private message member who you think might be interested in the listing information.

Did he ever get anything recorded with his new board? I helped him out there a bit to try to get up to speed, and he had a friend locally who did a bunch more in those regards, but he never mentioned anything even though I and a couple of other members here were prodding him. If he did get anything recorded, I would love to hear it and/or would be happy to mix it if it is still raw tracks. I know he had a percussionist and some back up vocalists that he had wanted to record along with his playing/singing.

Thanks for posting this on his behalf as well as organizing and distributing his gear. It is a big job and it is great to know that it is in the hands of someone who knows how to value his stuff and distribute it to the most interested parties (rather than just dumping it all on Guitar Center or something)!!!

Blessings to you and yours!
 
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