L-00 or All mahogany 00 for acoustic blues

[rollypolly]

I think an all mahogany Martin will be great for blues and pretty versatile as well since it's x braced and can be pretty sounding, yet still very mellow.

[joelhunn]

Just purchased a 00-17 black smoke for this very purpose. Looking forward to digging into it. There is a really nice Eastman 00 12 fret in the classifieds that was tempting also

[BluesKing777]

Yes, just find a ladder braced Waterloo WL-14L and thank Bill later....again.

Here is mine last week with a short acoustic blues:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=651113



BluesKing777.

[Corndog]

Originally Posted by BluesKing777

Yes, just find a ladder braced Waterloo WL-14L and thank Bill later....again.

Here is mine last week with a short acoustic blues:

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=651113



BluesKing777.

That was just great BluesKing! You make a pretty good case for a Waterloo alright.

[jpd]

Originally Posted by Stringmaster

Having (or having had) both, I see it as the opposite—the spruce top will be more versatile. It gives you more power and fullness, vs the more delicate and subdued sound of an all mahogany guitar. And the spruce top—especially Adi will hold up better to strumming and more aggressive playing.

Bingo...............

[PTL]

Originally Posted by MikeInBethesda

I'm getting close to pulling the trigger on a small bodied guitar, and am considering between these two options (either Gibson/Martin or analogous boutique options) They clearly are both very good options for acoustic fingerstyle blues. I'm curious what the community has to say in terms of the merits of one over the other. My general sense from playing these is that the L-00 would win out purely for fingerstyle playing, but the all mahogany may be a bet more versatile. Thoughts?

Probably not the budget you are looking at but played a Martin 00-17 Authentic quite a bit. It was an amazingly potent package. Hard to believe how much sound it puts out with a pick. And the quality of the tone was very dense/weighty, in a great way. I'll be comparing a 1953 00-17 and the 00-17A this weekend at a friend's. I think the 00-17A should be better.....

[MikeInBethesda]

Originally Posted by PTL

Probably not the budget you are looking at but played a Martin 00-17 Authentic quite a bit. It was an amazingly potent package. Hard to believe how much sound it puts out with a pick. And the quality of the tone was very dense/weighty, in a great way. I'll be comparing a 1953 00-17 and the 00-17A this weekend at a friend's. I think the 00-17A should be better.....

Thanks, that's a great suggestion and I've looked a bit at these, I've uniformly heard great things. My only hesitation is that I"m not a big fan of slotted head stocks.

[zombywoof]

If there was an archetype blues guitar in the 1920s and 1930s it was the Oscar Scmidt Stella. They could be found anywhere from music shops to hardware stores, sounded good and probably most important could survive life on the road.

Waterloos have carved out a nice little niche for themselves with a sound that is in between lo-fi and hi-fi. So yeah, objectively they sound a whole lot better than my all-birch Schmidt Stella. I still, however, prefer my Schmidt-built spruce and mahogany Galliano jumbo over any Waterloo I have run across. But I would take a Waterloo over any new standard production Gibson L00 in a heartbeat.

Leaving out the very pricey Fraulinis you also might consider Tony Klassen's Crooked Star line or an offering by Mike Hauver (assuming he is still building guitars). Tony even offers a Roy Book Binder Signature guitar in his higher dollar New Era line. None too shabby. The downside though is these are not going to be near as easy to unearth as a Waterloo so even getting your hands on one to even try out is going to be a hard row to hoe. Patience though can have its virtues.

[M Sarad]

My Northwood L-00 is Mahogany and Torrefied Adirondack. Perfect for blues.

[BluesKing777]

Another guitar fantastic for blues fingerpicking, my opinion, is the easy to find Martin 000-28ec....just saw 25 used on Reverb, so....

Mine is a 2006, highly recommend a run in one! With the great Mod V neck and 2 1/4” bridge spacing, I easily jump between my Waterloos and my EC..... Eric selected great specs!


BluesKing777.

[zombywoof]

OK, so what does the ideal blues guitar sound like? Lots of discussion about what we all like to play but not so much info regarding what it is about these guitars which makes them stand out in a very crowded field. You are sure as heck are not going to find any answers by looking at what a guy like Big Bill Broonzy played as his guitars ranged from a Gibson Style 0 to a Martin 000-28. Lightning Hopkins moved seemed to do just fine whether he was playing a Kay K24 or Gibson J50 while Skip James was known to play a Gibson J185 and Martin D28. I am going to take a wild guess and say none of these guitars have a whole lot in common when it comes to sound.

[mawmow]

I own a Gibson L-OO TV, a Huss&Dalton Crossroads, a Martin OODB Jeff Tweedy and used to own a Gibson L-1 Blues Tribute.

Well, all are fine blues players.

The Waterloo WL-14 I had tried sounded like my Gibson L-1 Blues Tribute.

The Gibson delivers a strong metal string sound that is clearly less present on the Crossroads though similar style.

I once had a Gibson Lg-0 (all Mahogany, ladder braced top) that had that vintage blues sound.

My 2014 Martin OOO-18 does fine as did the Taylor 322 (Mahogany/Blackwood)

To me the CEO-7 sounds more folk than blues…

Whichever model you choose, Martin Monel Retro strings could also help…

[tadol]

I’d check out Catfish Keith - lots of good stuff he’s put out there, but here’s an intro -

https://youtu.be/gRq-quhcYHc

[BluesKing777]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

If there was an archetype blues guitar in the 1920s and 1930s it was the Oscar Scmidt Stella. They could be found anywhere from music shops to hardware stores, sounded good and probably most important could survive life on the road.

Waterloos have carved out a nice little niche for themselves with a sound that is in between lo-fi and hi-fi. So yeah, objectively they sound a whole lot better than my all-birch Schmidt Stella. I still, however, prefer my Schmidt-built spruce and mahogany Galliano jumbo over any Waterloo I have run across. But I would take a Waterloo over any new standard production Gibson L00 in a heartbeat.

Leaving out the very pricey Fraulinis you also might consider Tony Klassen's Crooked Star line or an offering by Mike Hauver (assuming he is still building guitars). Tony even offers a Roy Book Binder Signature guitar in his higher dollar New Era line. None too shabby. The downside though is these are not going to be near as easy to unearth as a Waterloo so even getting your hands on one to even try out is going to be a hard row to hoe. Patience though can have its virtues.

Yes, the new standard production Gibson L-00 is similar to my 2007 Blues King L-00 and has 1.72 nut and 2 3/16 bridge space on their slim neck while the same shape Waterloo has spacious 1 3/4 - 2 3/8 V neck like some 30s L-00s. The BK 1.72 is still way better than a 1 11/16 nut (Martin 00-15 in early post) for me anyway.

I win lotto and a Stella Gambler owner somewhere might get an offer they can’t refuse! (that is THE acoustic blues sound in my head, along with a Kalamazoo KG-14 ala RJ).

AND......Collings will get an order for a custom shop gloss black Waterloo Stella style WL-S Deluxe! AND just a production WL-S Deluxe.......it would be nice to compare all 3 then. I suspect the playability of a new one could be perfect, like my current Waterloos.....

BluesKing777.

[jt1]

This is not a disjunctive: "L-00 or All mahogany 00"

There are all all-mahogany L-00s (called L-0s).

One of my favorites is the all mahogany L-1, which in its first incarnation was X-brace with fancy appointments.

Here's my comparison of the various versions of the first-issue Banner LGs, which are 00 size: