The immeasurably popular Waterloo X-braced L-00, in lefty. Picking up a left-handed X-braced Collings Waterloo is the closest almost all of us lefties will ever come to experiencing what it's like to play a 1930's Gibson L-00. There aren't too many left-handed vintage L-00s in the world, but now that there are Waterloos, that's not as tough a pill to swallow. We tip our hats to the people at Collings who've created these fine guitars after carefully studying those great 1930's originals. From the feel of the neck to the similarity of the tone, they really did a remarkable job of capturing many details of an original L-00.

The guitar is built with a wide-angle X, small and thin maple bridgeplate, and a spruce top. Looking inside the guitar, it's not too different than a 30's L-00 under the hood, except that it is built with Collings' incredible attention to detail. The guitar has a beautiful spruce top, mahogany back and sides, aged white top binding, and an unbound back; a rounded medium C neck with rosewood fingerboard, adjustable neck support and simple dot markers. The headstock features open-geared tuners, screened logo, and an ebony nut. Ebony bridge and pins, bone drop-in saddle, firestripe pickguard, and aged white soundhole binding complete the top. The WL-14x is finished in a very 1930's Kalamazoo sunburst, with period brown back and sides. The neck measures 1-3/4" at the nut, pin spread at the bridge is 2-3/8", and the scale length is 24-3/4".

Talk about an exciting guitar. Not only does the Waterloo WL-14x capture the look and feel of a 1930's L-00, it has the sound to back it up. The Waterloo is one of the few new guitar models we've ever played that really does the L-00 thing right. The mids are punchy, strong, and up front, and are very well supported by an underlying warmth and a subtle overtone presence. Trebles are round and thick, and the bass is present and well defined.