Listening to this demo on good speakers, what I noticed is the remarkable difference in the bass notes. The 100 year old guitar is much louder in bass notes and more open as one would expect. It would be interesting to see what the Wl-K would sound like after it has been broken in. I'm a ragtime player who took lessons from Mose Scarlett in Toronto. He played an old 1950s? 00-18 Martin that had a huge bass sound for its size. No comparison to my new one. He told me the guitar was a gift from Bruce Cockburn.
Perfect choice of player to compare these two almost identical guitars that have approximately 100 years between them. Although the original Kel has much more bottom, they really sound quite similar to my ears. I own three Waterloos at present, and the closest thing I have to compare is my 1933 Kalamazoo/Gibson KG-11, which is similar in size and weight to the WL-K. Likewise, they have a lot of similarity to their tones, but not as close as these two. I'd love to get my hands on an original 30s Kel Kroydon, especially one with the stencil art on top! I have the Waterloo Southwest WL-K with the desert cactus scene handpainted on top. Absolutely LOVE it! Hats off to Bill Collings (RIP) for his dedication to recreating all these depression era guitars with such incredible quality builds. Unfortunately, the Waterloos are almost impossible to get now, as Collings has had to shift their attention towards fulfilling orders for their main brand, so the Waterloos must take a back seat for the foreseeable future.
Nicely done. I can hear the mid push in the ladder braced Kel (and it's 86 years old!) compared to the wider tonal range of the X braced Waterloo. Both sound sweet.
No one said it was fair. You can't buy a brand new Kel Kroydon anymore, but you can buy the recreation. I think the recreation holds up really well, despite the age difference.
Paul, seems you're running a great operation there in Montana. Thing is, I get the feeling every time I see you appear on Acoustic Letter that you're uncomfortable in front of the camera. This makes me - uncomfortable. What I'm saying is, I don't think you contribute to what could be a more relaxed and "verycool" (as T.P. use to say), atmosphere.
