Walnut Guitar, Any experience or opinions?

dieguy
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Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:33 pm

I am looking for some input. Has anybody here played a guitar in which the back and sides were made from American Black Walnut? I have been doing some Internet research and I am getting a wide range of opinions. I figure who can I trust more than my fellow TGers so if anybody has experience with this wood in guitar construction please give me your opinions. ALso please let me know what type of wood the soundboard was made of if you know.

Thanks,

Bill


dennisg
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Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:00 pm

I've never played Walnut, but here's a tonewood chart for reference.

Image


dieguy
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Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:03 pm

Wow Dennis, Thats Great! thank you very much. This will be very helpful to me. Any Idea what the dashed line at the beginning means?

Bill


MarkM
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Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:58 pm

dieguy wrote:
Wow Dennis, Thats Great! thank you very much. This will be very helpful to me. Any Idea what the dashed line at the beginning means?

Bill

Bill that dashed line means that over time as the guitar opens up a bit the bottem end/Bass notes become more pronounced. I've heard some pretty nice things about walnut guitars. PM me and I'll send you a link to a place that you may get some answers.



MarkM


BigBear
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Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:59 pm

Hey Bill-

Dennis' chart is really great; I've never seen that one before. But it doesn't address the quality of the sound.

Walnut has been around as a tonewood for a long time but artists like Taylor Swift's beautiful walnut Taylor have made walnut more noticeable lately. I've played many walnut guitars. I also grew and sold black walnut (primarily as gun stocks) and can tell you that it is a very dense, hard wood with beautiful, tight grain.

Overall, I am not very impressed by walnut guitars. To my old ears it seems very tight and closed off. It seems to do well in certain 12 string configurations and carries that high end jangle pretty well. I don't know if I will live long enough to ever get a walnut guitar to open up properly. There is a reason for the dotted line on the chart!

Here's my theory. Walnut, both Black and English, has been around forever and used in furniture since pilgrim days in this country yet it has never really caught on for making high-end guitars. Why is that? Maple has certainly done well, but cherry, pecan (hickory) and other dense woods just seem better suited to smoking meats that smoking riffs! BTW- you can't smoke with walnut.

With all the other options in tone woods available I would not seek out walnut unless you have too many guitars and just want to have something unique. When walnut is done right it can truly be beautiful. But you have to love the sound and I don't!

Good luck buddy! Good question by the way!

Cheers! :cheer:


cavi
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Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:43 pm

I have a Martin with solid back and walnut sides and I love it, however the smell is very strong, every time it comes out of the case the smell of it permeates my whole room..... Great sound though, nice and warm.


wrench
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Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:52 pm

cavi wrote:
I have a Martin with solid back and walnut sides and I love it, however the smell is very strong, every time it comes out of the case the smell of it permeates my whole room..... Great sound though, nice and warm.
cavi, have you ever posted a video with that guitar?


professor bob
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Sun Jan 23, 2011 7:33 pm

I built the guitar in my profile photo out of Oak. The guitar was a Samick I bought used but I wanted to change it. I put humbuckers on teh Samick body but that did not do the trick. So I took the Samick body away and made an oak frame for the center section and the sides and glues on 1/4 inch oak you can bbuy at the lumber store and sanded into the shape you see. It is interesting and has a high tone. You can check it out here.


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