There are few things more appealing to guitar players than an old instrument with a story.
The worn finish. The slightly unusual neck shape. The dry, woody tone that seems to come from somewhere completely different to a modern acoustic guitar.
For many players, guitars from the 1920s and 1930s have a character that is difficult to replicate. Instruments from this period were often simple, lightly built, and designed to be affordable rather than luxurious.
That simplicity became part of their charm.
Waterloo Guitars, created by the late Bill Collings, was born from an appreciation of exactly this kind of instrument.
Rather than attempting to recreate the most prestigious pre war guitars, Waterloo looked towards the humble instruments that were once sold to working musicians through mail order catalogues and music shops.
The result was a range of guitars that combined the raw character of Depression era instruments with the build quality and playability of a modern handmade guitar.
It was an unusual idea.
It also worked remarkably well.
Bill Collings and the Birth of Waterloo
To understand Waterloo, it helps to understand Bill Collings.
The founder of Collings Guitars had spent decades developing a reputation for exceptionally precise American made instruments. His guitars took inspiration from some of the great acoustic designs of the early twentieth century, but they were never intended to be simple replicas.
Collings approached traditional guitar building with an engineer's mindset.
Construction details, bracing, neck joints, materials, finishes, and tolerances were all examined and refined. The result was a range of instruments that combined traditional designs with extremely high standards of modern craftsmanship.
Waterloo came from a different direction.
Bill became fascinated by the inexpensive guitars of the Depression era. These were instruments that had often been built with fewer decorative appointments and simpler construction methods than their more expensive counterparts.
Many were made for players who simply needed a guitar.
They were working instruments.
The music associated with them was equally direct. Blues, country, folk, and early roots music were played in work camps, churches, porches, kitchens, honky tonks, and countless other places across America.
Waterloo was created to capture that spirit.
As Collings explains, the brand was designed to capture the voice and character of the best Depression era guitars while making them well built and highly playable.
The WL 14: Where It All Started
The first Waterloo model was the WL 14.
Introduced in 2014, the WL 14 became the foundation for the entire Waterloo range. Its design was inspired by the small bodied guitars of the 1930s, including the Kalamazoo instruments that had originally inspired Bill Collings.
At first glance, the WL 14 looks remarkably simple.
It has a compact body, a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck, and a relatively restrained set of appointments.
There is no attempt to make it look like an expensive modern boutique guitar.
That is precisely the point.
The standard WL 14 features a 24 7/8 inch scale length, a 1 3/4 inch nut width, an Indian rosewood fingerboard, an ebony bridge, Golden Age Restoration tuners, and a semi gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish. The body is finished in either a vintage style sunburst or Jet Black.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the WL 14 is what is happening underneath the top.
Ladder Bracing vs X Bracing
The WL 14 can be built with either ladder bracing or X bracing.
For anyone familiar with vintage acoustic guitars, this is more than a technical detail.
Ladder bracing was common on many inexpensive guitars during the early twentieth century. Instead of the intersecting braces associated with modern X bracing, the braces run across the underside of the soundboard like the rungs of a ladder.
The result is a very different response.
Waterloo describes the ladder braced WL 14 as having a woody, open tone with a distinctive midrange character that works particularly well for fingerstyle blues. The X braced version has a tighter and more balanced response across the frequency range.
It is one of the details that makes Waterloo particularly interesting.
The company wasn't simply copying the appearance of old guitars.
It was investigating the construction methods that gave those instruments their distinctive voices.
For players who love traditional blues, slide, fingerstyle, country, and roots music, that difference can be immediately noticeable.
The ladder braced version feels rawer and more open.
The X braced version offers a little more focus.
Neither is necessarily better.
They are simply different approaches to the same basic idea.
The Sound of an Old Guitar Without the Problems
This is where Waterloo's concept becomes particularly clever.
Vintage guitars can sound incredible.
They can also be unpredictable.
An original guitar from the 1930s might have decades of history behind it, but it may also have neck problems, repaired cracks, worn frets, compromised braces, or a bridge that has been replaced several times.
Even when the guitar is structurally sound, the playing experience can be very different from that of a modern instrument.
Waterloo takes the character of those guitars and combines it with modern playability.
The instruments are handmade in Austin, Texas, using solid tonewoods, while the construction and setup are brought up to the standards expected from a modern professional instrument.
That makes them particularly interesting for players who love vintage guitars but actually want to play their instrument rather than worry about preserving it.
The WL K: Less Is More
The WL K takes the Waterloo philosophy even further.
Inspired by Kel Kroydon instruments from around 1930, the WL K is an extremely lightweight 12 fret guitar designed around responsiveness.
Waterloo lists the weight at under three pounds.
That is exceptionally light for a steel string acoustic.
The guitar uses a spruce top with mahogany back and sides, vintage inspired X bracing, a 24 7/8 inch scale, and a semi gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish. It also dispenses with a pickguard, helping maintain the stripped back appearance of the original instruments that inspired it.
The result is an instrument designed to react to the player.
The lightweight construction allows the top to move easily, while the relatively short scale contributes to a comfortable playing feel.
Waterloo describes the resulting sound as dry and transparent, with plenty of harmonic detail and note separation.
It is particularly suited to fingerstyle playing, but its clarity also makes it useful for singer songwriters and roots musicians.
There is something very appealing about the philosophy.
Build less.
Let the guitar do more.
The WL S: Waterloo Meets Stella
The WL S explores another fascinating corner of American guitar history.
Rather than taking its inspiration from Kalamazoo, this model looks towards Stella guitars from the 1930s.
Stella was one of the names associated with affordable American guitars during the early twentieth century, and its instruments have become increasingly interesting to modern vintage guitar players.
The WL S uses a 12 fret design, solid spruce top, solid cherry back and sides, and vintage inspired ladder bracing.
The body is slightly smaller than the WL 14, while the 24 7/8 inch scale length remains consistent with other Waterloo models.
It also features a slotted headstock, pyramid bridge, Soft V neck profile, and an iced tea sunburst finish.
Tonally, Waterloo describes the WL S as clear, dimensional, and punchy.
The combination of cherry construction and ladder bracing gives the guitar its own character while maintaining the dry, vintage inspired response that defines the Waterloo concept.
It is a perfect example of how broad the definition of a vintage guitar can be.
American guitar history isn't simply about Martin and Gibson.
Some of the most interesting instruments came from the less glamorous end of the market.
The Scissortail
One of the most distinctive Waterloo models is the WL 14 Scissortail.
The name comes from the Scissor tailed Flycatcher, a bird found in the Central Texas Hill Country.
The guitar itself takes inspiration from Kalamazoo Oriole guitars produced between 1940 and 1942.
But rather than using mahogany back and sides like the standard WL 14, the Scissortail uses solid maple.
It also features a natural finish, tortoise style binding, tigerstripe celluloid pickguard, and a Scissortail decal on the headstock.
The change in wood gives the guitar a different personality.
Waterloo describes the Scissortail as having excellent projection and focus while retaining the woody character associated with the WL 14.
Visually, it is also one of the most distinctive instruments in the range.
It looks like a vintage guitar without looking like another copy of a familiar Martin or Gibson design.
Why Do Waterloo Guitars Feel So Different?
Part of Waterloo's appeal comes down to restraint.
Modern guitar design often moves towards greater complexity.
More pickups.
More electronics.
More switching options.
More elaborate finishes.
More exotic materials.
Waterloo went the other way.
The guitars are deliberately simple.
That simplicity extends beyond appearance.
The finishes are relatively understated. The appointments are restrained. The body shapes are compact. The bracing is inspired by historical construction. Even details such as the stencilled Waterloo logo help reinforce the feeling that these are instruments from another era.
But there is an important distinction.
These aren't antique guitars.
They are modern instruments designed to behave like antique guitars.
That distinction is what makes them so useful.
The Players Who Discovered Waterloo
A guitar can have impressive specifications, but the real test is what happens when musicians start using it.
Waterloo has developed an impressive list of players.
Julian Lage became closely associated with the WL 14, including using a ladder braced model during his 2015 solo tour. Bill Frisell has also performed with Waterloo instruments, while players including Molly Tuttle, Ryan Bingham, Father John Misty, Joey Landreth, JD Simo, Andy Shauf, and St Vincent have all been associated with different Waterloo models.
That range of musicians is significant.
Waterloo guitars aren't confined to one particular style.
A ladder braced WL 14 might make perfect sense in a traditional blues setting, but the same instrument can also work beautifully in a modern songwriter's arrangement.
The dry response can leave plenty of space for vocals.
The compact body can be comfortable for long playing sessions.
The strong midrange can sit naturally in a recording.
And the slightly unusual character can provide something that a more polished modern acoustic might not.
The Vintage Guitar Philosophy
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Waterloo is what the brand says about the way we think about vintage guitars.
For decades, players have searched for instruments that sound old.
Sometimes that means buying an original vintage guitar.
Sometimes it means ageing a new guitar.
Sometimes it means changing construction methods.
Waterloo took another approach.
It asked a simple question.
What if you built a new guitar using the ideas that made those old instruments special?
The answer was not a replica.
It was a new interpretation.
The guitars retain the lightweight construction, simple aesthetics, unusual bracing, short scale lengths, and dry tonal character associated with their historical influences.
But they are still modern instruments.
The frets are properly dressed.
The neck is adjustable.
The construction is controlled.
The guitar arrives ready to play.
That combination is the real attraction.
A Different Side of Collings
Waterloo also represents an interesting part of the Collings story.
Collings became famous for taking traditional American guitar designs and refining them to an extraordinary degree.
Waterloo deliberately went looking for the imperfections and simplicity of another part of guitar history.
It would be easy to assume that the two approaches are contradictory.
They aren't.
Both are based on the same fundamental idea.
Understand why an instrument works.
Then build it properly.
The difference is what each brand is trying to achieve.
A Collings acoustic can offer exceptional clarity, projection, balance, and precision.
A Waterloo is more interested in warmth, immediacy, dryness, and character.
Neither approach requires abandoning craftsmanship.
In fact, Waterloo demonstrates just how much craftsmanship can be hidden behind an apparently simple guitar.
The Legacy of Waterloo
Bill Collings died in 2017, but the ideas behind Waterloo remain an important part of his legacy.
Collings describes Waterloo as a line created to capture the voice and spirit of Depression era guitars while making them well made and highly playable.
That description gets to the heart of the brand.
These aren't guitars designed to impress from across a showroom.
They aren't covered in elaborate decoration.
They don't rely on exotic specifications.
They are designed to make you want to pick them up.
And play.
That is perhaps why Waterloo has developed such a devoted following among blues players, fingerstyle guitarists, country musicians, and singer songwriters.
There is something immediately human about an instrument like this.
It feels less like a piece of furniture and more like a musical tool.
Waterloo: Old Soul, New Guitar
The history of American acoustic guitar is often told through the biggest names.
Martin.
Gibson.
Fender.
But there is another story running underneath it.
The story of the inexpensive guitars that ended up in the hands of musicians because they were available, affordable, and capable of making music.
Those instruments helped shape blues, country, folk, and early American popular music.
Waterloo looked back at that history and found something worth preserving.
Not just the shapes.
Not just the finishes.
Not just the visual style.
The philosophy.
Build a guitar that responds.
Keep it simple.
Let the wood speak.
Give the player an instrument with character.
And perhaps most importantly, make it something that begs to be played.
That is the real appeal of Waterloo by Collings.
These guitars may look like they belong to another era, but they were never intended to live in a museum.
They were built to make music.
And for anyone who loves the sound, feel, and personality of vintage acoustic guitars, that might be the most important feature of all.
