Waterloo Purchase Help!!

[cliff_the_stiff]

Originally Posted by JoeYouDon't

The JK -- The K is the opposite of brash to me. Gives me Mississippi John Hurt vibes.

I had a JK for a while. It doesn’t sound like a Martin.
It’s still a great sounding guitar. It’s tone is very fundamental, few overtones.
Can be loud and rowdy, or quite clear and pretty.
I liked it a lot.
The 16 inch body is the same as a Taylor GA, or a 0000.
Almost 5 inches deep though.
Mine was Mahogany.

[mccartymind]

Originally Posted by hairpuller

Big Tweedy guy, too!

My 00018 GE with retros was a match made in heaven!

My WL-12 was super dry and a joy to play, but pretty one dimensional.

Why not get a MARTIN 00 Jeff Tweedy?

Good luck!
Scott

Almost bought a 00 db off Reverb but felt the body depth lost something in the videos I watched. Would love to play one to confirm that.

I know what a 000 18 is but what’s GE?

[hairpuller]

That's the Golden Era version...awesome guitars. Wish I hadn't sold mine.

scott

[BluesKing777]

Originally Posted by mccartymind

Okay, I know you can't make this decision for me but maybe you can help.

I've had my eye on Waterloos lately and I cannot decide which one to buy. I do not have a local shop that carries them so I cannot play them. I recently had a WL S shipped to me but I returned it. There was much I liked about it but I also like to strum a decent amount and it sounded too brash and droney with a pick. That said, I have a feeling it would have grown on me. I started to think I wanted a 14 fret X braced instead but after listening to videos of the WL K as well as some WL 12s I liked, now I'm unsure. And to complicate things even more, I really like all mahogany guitars. I'm unsure of the Waterloo MH cause it doesn't sound as warm as a Martin hog which I quite like. Lastly, I'm curious about the WL JK, and while it will give me more room for strumming I'm worried it will miss the sound and feel of these smaller bodies. I'm not a blues player but I like the effect of these smaller bodies with quieter strumming and finger picking. I love the Jeff Tweedy sound and he tends to play smaller bodies.

So what's your sense of a good sounding strummer among the Waterloo line? The WL K seems nice but it also might be too light overall. I realize I need several guitars to scratch the various itches I have which is making this decision hard. I set out to buy a J45 or D18 after 25 years of a cheap laminate Fender (which I think I've gotten to sound pretty decent actually) and bought a Martin 000 15m which surprised me in the store and inspired me in ways I was not expecting. The thin Martin neck hurt my arm. So now I'm on the hunt for the perfect first small body Waterloo.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Jason

I wouldn’t like a Waterloo of mine strummed, at all......wouldn’t even like fingerpicks......wrong guitar sound....

Let me go back a bit.

Now after years of trying/buying guitars that I thought might be good for mainly bare fingered country blues and watching new guitar makers move even further away from my just found mod V love......on to their slimlime, slim taper, low oval, modified low oval.......my fingers didn’t hurt as much as the whole of me just went numb!

And vintage guitars were only 1 3/4” nutted when the the prices were nutty! Or they were 1 11/16” nutted.

All the 1 11/16” nutted can sound great but not enjoyable for me to play.

I had my wonderful OMs with Big Mod Vs that everyone else....err...didn’t like....but the Martin sound was really beautiful but..............I’m not!

And then one day, an announcement came out, everywhere really, calling out on ether - Bill Collings had made a modern version of the ladder braced Kalamazoo KG-14 with big V and lots of love and...30s grit.

And I was fighting off all these people to get to this thing that Bill made for me. ME! M...E.... Made by Bill for me!

And they only had the X braced WL-14 left after the feeding frenzy was over. So I bought it even though I wanted the ladder. And the V neck is perfect and the sound is perfect for bare fingered blues....

And a couple of years later, I traded an OM rosewood I just didn’t play for a ladder WL-14L!!!

So now I look at the X as a L-00 and the ladder as a Kalamazoo and, and, and.

I haven’t strummed a guitar with a pick this century, but if I wanted a fat neck small body to belt into, I think I would look for a Martin 00-18V or an OM18V, both mahogany/sitka, or the incredible CEO7 mahogany/adi.

Or maybe leave the fingerpicker guitars to the......fingerpickers! And buy one of the 4 billion HARD STRUMMER guitars that fingerpickers wade through to get to the one they want?


BluesKing777.

[mccartymind]

Originally Posted by BluesKing777

I wouldn’t like a Waterloo of mine strummed, at all......wouldn’t even like fingerpicks......wrong guitar sound....

Let me go back a bit.

Now after years of trying/buying guitars that I thought might be good for mainly bare fingered country blues and watching new guitar makers move even further away from my just found mod V love......on to their slimlime, slim taper, low oval, modified low oval.......my fingers didn’t hurt as much as the whole of me just went numb!

And vintage guitars were only 1 3/4” nutted when the the prices were nutty! Or they were 1 11/16” nutted.

All the 1 11/16” nutted can sound great but not enjoyable for me to play.

I had my wonderful OMs with Big Mod Vs that everyone else....err...didn’t like....but the Martin sound was really beautiful but..............I’m not!

And then one day, an announcement came out, everywhere really, calling out on ether - Bill Collings had made a modern version of the ladder braced Kalamazoo KG-14 with big V and lots of love and...30s grit.

And I was fighting off all these people to get to this thing that Bill made for me. ME! M...E.... Made by Bill for me!

And they only had the X braced WL-14 left after the feeding frenzy was over. So I bought it even though I wanted the ladder. And the V neck is perfect and the sound is perfect for bare fingered blues....

And a couple of years later, I traded an OM rosewood I just didn’t play for a ladder WL-14L!!!

So now I look at the X as a L-00 and the ladder as a Kalamazoo and, and, and.

I haven’t strummed a guitar with a pick this century, but if I wanted a fat neck small body to belt into, I think I would look for a Martin 00-18V or an OM18V, both mahogany/sitka, or the incredible CEO7 mahogany/adi.

Or maybe leave the fingerpicker guitars to the......fingerpickers! And buy one of the 4 billion HARD STRUMMER guitars that fingerpickers wade through to get to the one they want?


BluesKing777.

Maybe you missed where I said I still do a lot of finger picking. I am not looking for a HARD STRUMMER.

[BluesKing777]

Originally Posted by mccartymind

Maybe you missed where I said I still do a lot of finger picking. I am not looking for a HARD STRUMMER.

But you said something like ‘you strum a decent amount’ and it was brash and ‘what is good strummer in the WLoos?’

None is my short answer, in my small experience.

But you know, they have six strings and people do all kinds of things.

Have you played a CEO7, way more of an all rounder?


BluesKing777.