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Old 01-17-2019, 04:57 PM
SJ VanSandt SJ VanSandt is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Posts: 2,124
Default Waterloo WL-K - is it too light?

Of the Waterloos I've played, the WL-K has consistently been my favorite, sound wise, though I like most of the others as well. It seems a little warmer, a little bassier (though far from overly so), and louder than most of the others. I was all set to pull the trigger on one when a friend - an excellent bluegrass player - warned me that in his experience, because of the lower string tension of the extra light strings, he gets a lot of fret buzz when he digs in as much as he normally does. This gave me pause. Now, I'm not a particularly heavy handed player, but I do hate string buzz, and one reason I want a Waterloo is to learn how to play fingerstyle blues, and I think a certain snap is inherent in the style.

Has anyone else experienced something like this? Would I be better off with the WL- 12, which is built a tad heavier and comes with standard light gauge strings? I like it almost as well, though it doesn't seem quite as warm or loud.

Check out this video of Jake Workman. It looks like pretty sturdy playing, but I don't hear much string noise.

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