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newer L-00

Bluesidae

By Bluesidae
in Gibson Acoustic

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jedzep

jedzep

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A good blues guitarist can make either of these a 'bluesbox'. The L00 is lightweight and more on the soft side of the woody tone than the sturdiier heavier built LG2. The L00 has a more resonant bass too, in my experience. If you get a chance to play them side by side you'll feel/hear it. I'm a big L00 guy, and if you're throwing around 4K you'll do OK.

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zombywoof

zombywoof

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A good blues guitarist can make either of these a 'bluesbox'. The L00 is lightweight and more on the soft side of the woody tone than the sturdiier heavier built LG2. The L00 has a more resonant bass too, in my experience. If you get a chance to play them side by side you'll feel/hear it. I'm a big L00 guy, and if you're throwing around 4K you'll do OK.

 

Amen. If you have what Rev. Gary Davis once described as a sporting right hand the rest is gravy. No special gear required despite what the guitar company marketing teams or the guy on eBay trying to sell an el cheapo all-birch concert size instrument tell you. I did start off as a blues newbie many decades ago with an old L-00. I did not know a good guitar from a can of tuna but snagged it because I liked the burst, it looked like the guitars the guys from the 1920s and 1930s were playing on LP covers and it was cheap. But then I saw Rev. Davis playing a J-200 and Lighnin' playing Gibson J-50. So I just knew I had to get me one of those. Point is, just grab any guitar you like the feel and the sound of. Absolutely nothing wrong with either of the guitars you are thinking about. For me, what sets slope shoulder Gibsons apart and one of the reasons I am still playing them, is their quicker decay. Makes them more immediate sounding. But these days I am just as likely to walk out of the house with a Harmony Sovereign or an arch-back NYC-made Epi flattop as I am with a Gibson. Part of it is I tend to grab the louder instruments so they can, so to speak, hear me at the back of the church. But also in the end, no matter what guitar I am playing I just sound like me.

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fortyearspickn

fortyearspickn

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Well said. I've seen lots of great players with non-traditional 'blues' guitars that sounded great. Were clearly 'bluesmen'. You might not play blueGRASS well on a Classical - but as ZW said - a Gibson slope (hog) will get you a nice bluesy sound. . Small body, quick decay. Dead strings? Yeppers. Did Robert Johnson worry about humidity? Nope. Only keeping himself hydrated!

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Bluesidae

Bluesidae

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Well said. I've seen lots of great players with non-traditional 'blues' guitars that sounded great. Were clearly 'bluesmen'. You might not play blueGRASS well on a Classical - but as ZW said - a Gibson slope (hog) will get you a nice bluesy sound. . Small body, quick decay. Dead strings? Yeppers. Did Robert Johnson worry about humidity? Nope. Only keeping himself hydrated!

^^ Very well said. I like your attitude! :)

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BluesKing777

BluesKing777

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I have a lot of the main food groups for blues guitars, love the L-00 size and shape, but I can honestly say I doubt I would have ever bought some of them if The Collings Waterloo collection were around then. They have been selling like hotcakes and seemed to have nailed the Kalamazoo type sound. Pity Gibson don’t reissue the K, but they haven’t. I mean, about $1900 minus bargaining or less used! Might buy one myself if the guitar fund picks up. Everytime I see another review of the Waterloo, I go and play my 1935 Gibson archtop......there is another option - archtop!

 

 

BluesKing777.

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zombywoof

zombywoof

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The association of the blues and the smaller body guitars stems from the Oscar Schmidt concert Stellas of the 1920s and 1930s. An amazing number of players favored these guitars. The super long scale 12 strings in particular are highly sought after today because of their association with Blind Willie McTell, Barbecue Bob and, of course, Leadbelly. You can pay well north of $10K for one these days. The post-war players, including the earlier guys rediscovered during the Folk Music Revival tended to favor large body instruments such as the Kay Solo Special and Harmony Sovereign. While I have seen R. L. Burnside play a Gibson LG-2, far more played Gibson J-45s and J-50s.

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zombywoof

zombywoof

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Upstate NY saw a lot of John Hammond in the late 60's and early 70's. Sometimes for 3 bucks and dollar pitchers. Bromberg too. Ahh, those days.

 

 

John Hammond and Dave Van Ronk were the two guys who carried the blues torch after it had been dropped. I used to own a National Duolian which Hammnod had played on a song or two while recording at the Blue Heaven Studios in Salina, KS. Bromberg grew up jus down the road from where I lived. He later started hanging around Putnam Valley, NY with Jay and Lynn Ungar (who were with the Putnam String County Band at the time) while I was living there and so I would run across him now and then. He became a favorite up at the Town Crier Café. The place to be for the blues though was North Mississippi. When I moved to Mississippi in the early 1990s you could still go to Junior's Place (Junior Kimbrough's joint) or see R.L. Burnside sitting and playing on his front porch. You also had T Model Ford, Otha Turner, and others. They used to have a saying up there that the further you got from Mississippi, the worser the blues got.

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BluesKing777

BluesKing777

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Out here on Mars, in the 70s, 80s, there was a never ending parade of touring blues players. The tours here were tacked on to the ‘travelling blues revue’ circuit thst was huge in Europe - 4 or 5 solo blues artists touring together. Strange but true, but the end result was BK777 went to most of them! John Hammond came here regularly, but he was very well known and toured solo with a support act.

 

Point of my post is that I have been racking my brains to remember any of the blues artists I saw playing a Gibson acoustic, there were lots of Nationals, Dobros, Martins etc. and I can guarantee that I have never seen a soul playing a Gibson L-00 new or old....

 

 

BluesKing777.

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zombywoof

zombywoof

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Out here on Mars, in the 70s, 80s, there was a never ending parade of touring blues players. The tours here were tacked on to the ‘travelling blues revue’ circuit thst was huge in Europe - 4 or 5 solo blues artists touring together. Strange but true, but the end result was BK777 went to most of them! John Hammond came here regularly, but he was very well known and toured solo with a support act.

 

Point of my post is that I have been racking my brains to remember any of the blues artists I saw playing a Gibson acoustic, there were lots of Nationals, Dobros, Martins etc. and I can guarantee that I have never seen a soul playing a Gibson L-00 new or old....

 

 

 

I also cannot recall any pre- or post-War blues player who played an L-00. John Hammond did play a Gibson CF-100 which he had purchased as a teenager. I also saw R. L. Burnside playing an LG-2 and Furry Lewis a B-25. But again you will see far more J45s and J-50s being played than LGs. Even Keb Mo (whom I can live without) who, of course, has a signature Gibson model, originally played a Korean-built Epiphone Bluesmaster. I have had one in the house and they are actually pretty nice little guitars. Just not easy to find these days.

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Bluesidae

Bluesidae

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Thanks for all of the comments and the great discussion! I fully agree with the suggestion that Blues can be played on any guitar (It is in the heart/fingers). I have a wonderful Larrivee OM-50. That said, I am looking for a smaller guitar. It will be strictly for the blues. Something to sit back on the couch (or outside on the deck) and play some country blues. After the Gibson 'thump'. This gets me into the L1, L-00 or LG-2. Unfortunately I am in the boonies... not many guitars near me. I am just wondering about pros and cons. I am also wondering about a 12 vs 14 fretter.

 

Thnaks!

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BluesKing777

BluesKing777

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Well, there are LG1s and there are LG1s.......

 

Mine is 1952 ladder braced perfection for country blues slide, nice chunky C neck that makes the 1 11/16 nut bearable, but from 1960 on, all kinds of necks and sizes...1 5/8 seemingly random among 1 11/16 pencil neck. And JT has an LG1 from the late 40s which is really an LG2? Something like that, but try before you buy.

 

If you want ladder braced, Elderly has a 36 Kalamazoo KG14, probably what Collings copied with the Waterloo WL-14L ladder braced/TBar model? Old shoes or new? Big V neck with 1 3/4 nut and wider spacing.....

 

Or you can splash out and get a vintage L-00. (did Robert really play either Gibson or Kalamazoo or did he play an archtop? My 35 L50 has that ‘sound’)

 

 

BluesKing777.

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