Waterloo WL-AT Archtop
 

https://www.waterlooguitars.com/wl-at/

List is $4,500.00 USD

Very nice looking! ;)

I was excited about this when I saw it in the pictures and videos at NAMM, hoping against all hope that they could bring this to market in a semi affordable fashion as the rest of the Waterloo line embodies. No such luck. $4500 is just too much. Cool guitar though.

There are allot of jazzers that like some of the old school Waterloos for acoustic jazz. So why not make an archtop.

Interesting...I've found the same. So much of my swingy stuff which sounds good on my archtop also sounds good on my W'loo WL-S.

I look forward to test driving one of the W'loo archies.

I will observe with interest, and hope for another success for the post Bill Collings era, but I can't see this product being a great commercial success - there are so many good old, cheap arch-tops out there already - Harmony and the like.
I imagine you could get a reasonable old gibson for less than that.

The 'proof' will, of course, be in that first strum.

$500 more buys a hand-carved 17" jazzbox from Mark Campellone, with more upscale (albeit relatively simple) appointments...

I can have an original L-37 in excellent condition for about half that, an L-30 for even less, a serviceable New York Epiphone 15" Byron/Ritz or 16" Zenith/Blackstone for under $2K, and a brand-new Eastman AR605 or Loar LH-600/LH-700 for around $1200...

I might consider it at $3500 (the original projected street price as I recall), probably buy it at $2800-3000 - I agree they're cool little guitars - but IMO they're way out of line here, and the Collings connection alone isn't going to do it for me...

YMMV...

If I can find a used one about $2500 in a year or two, I might be interested, if they sound great--which I have no reason to beleive they won't.

Otherwise, it's just too expensive for what you're getting. The whole draw of the Waterloo flat tops (for me) is that you were getting a guitar that sounded like guitars of old--but the Waterloos were in good shape and playable--and STILL quite affordable!

There's still a lot of highly playable old smaller archtops out there with the same basic vibe, but for the same price or much cheaper. I mean, you can get a CLEAN Gibson L-50 for 2k...

In theory, the only noteworthy differences between this and the flattop Waterloo WL-14 are the top and the bridge and tailpiece. Considering the relatively commodity nature of the bridge and tailpiece, let’s say they are worth the same as the flat top bridge and bridge pins, so the meaningful difference is in top. Ultimately, even after the significant price increase across the line, we’re talking over $2200 difference for the top.

I understand the skills it takes, the time, etc. what I don’t understand is it carrying the Waterloo name since it’s essentially twice as expensive as everything else in the lineup so it just feels so out of place.

I guess my honest feelings are of shock at the price and disappointment that it’s way out of reach for me now. I had an actual 30s Kalamazoo that this WL is based on, superb shape, stupidly sold it in a fit of GAS, and was hoping to get my hands on one of these to fill the whole...guess not.

There’s certainly an audience for these, it’s just likely a lot smaller one than I was expecting due to the price if anyone else was like me.

I still can’t wait to play one.

I don’t think they are planning on making a lot of these. Compared to the price of an AT16 ($20k+) these are quite reasonable at $4500. I don’t think they will have a hard time selling these.

"$500 more buys a hand-carved 17" jazzbox from Mark Campellone, with more upscale (albeit relatively simple) appointments..."

+1 on that from me.

I like the wide string spacing at the bridge on the Waterloo, but I'll stick with my B-stock Eastman Pisano 880 at 1/3 the price.

Ok well listening to this makes it much more interesting...
Adirondack carve top... even a bit more - I will be seriously thinking about one of these now.




IdkU-F5LIs

Seriously, for $4500 you can get a 1930's archtop with a depth of sound this overpriced Waterloo will take decades to achieve.

Have you played the Waterloo model?

Not yet. I hope to do just that, soon.

Old wood sound is hard to replicate on a new guitar. Will the Waterloo archtop have torrified tops?