Acoustic Guitar Construction

I found just one place that was selling them, and that was on pre-order based on the two pre-production samples they had (the two that were used in the video). I thought you could order them with either a T-bar OR a truss rod. But it was confusing.

Strange, I find the Ladder braced one more pleasing. I hear there a smoother tone, and a more "harder" tone in the x-braced one. YA, How subjective can it be.
But what a difference in sound, compared to the Somogyi guitars.
So difficult to judge on the computer.
But somehow I like the soundbites of guitars. It would be a shame we all would not make them anymore because it would be meaningless. For me the forum is mainly about having fun and friends. (ok, and for info)

Herman

John P, I don't think the sound of the "Waterloo" ladder braced guitar (what a strangely loaded name to choose for a brand!) is intrinsic to the ladder brace scheme.

John How follows the Italian tradition of just 3 braces. That is how Italian immigrants built the early Oscar Schmidt Stellas. Even Leadbelly's jumbo 12-string had just 3 braces. When Harmony built their instruments, they expanded the 3 to 5, with subsequent damping of bass and, I think, general responsiveness - but nothing like I hear in these Waterloos.

Here is Michael Wong playing "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" on a How ladder braced instrument. It is capoed up to the 5th fret, so bass is deliberately raised, but you can get a much better sense of how ladder bracing can work to free up large areas of the soundboard.





Here is another John How LB instrument, playing the blues, no capo:

Wow, very nice.

Well I do like the sound of the John How guitar. It had a nicely balanced bass and trebles and the guitar seemed to follow the dynamics of the playing nicely. It is also a gorgeous instrument. I heard some other you tube clips of the waterloo ladder being played by others (demo videos), as I did find that slappy style of playing distracting. I still did not come away from the listening impressed with that guitar.

Those guitars sound great, and the first guy really has a nice touch, was beautiful.
Makes me want to learn to play the blues for sure.

Not to get too far off-thread, but here's a pic of John How's top bracing scheme as John Link mentioned.