Members jrew Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 I am in the process of makin a solid walnut body w/ maple neck and ebony board guitar. Will this combination sound ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hondro Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 I remember Gibson offered a walnut finish on a lot of their guitars in the late 60's and 70's but I think that was just a finish over mahogany and not solid maple IIRC walnut is bright and a great tone wood but I could be WAY off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HypnoToad Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 The Rickenbacker 650D has a walnut body and a neck-through maple neck. They Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pink freud Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 http://www.carvin.com/wood_finish/http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/options/options_bodywoods.cfm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ronaldo Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 No, not in my opinion. That would be very bright and also heavy. Solid walnut is bright and with maple and ebony, about as bright as you can get with a long scale. But that doesn't mean it will sound bad, but I personally wouldn't do that .. make the walnut hollow, or use rosewood fb or mahog neck and you'll be better off imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pink freud Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 i could see it balancing out a really dark amp, like the carvin legacy for instance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Darkstorm Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Is used as a top wood for some basses. Kind of like an alternate to maple. Not as bright as maple sound wise. But brighter then most body woods. A rosewood fretboard would be better choice imo over ebony for a walnut body & maple neck. Dinky size body or other smallish body would also be suggested since is fairly heavy wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Oyaji Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 It'll most likely be a beautiful sounding and looking guitar! It might weigh a ton or three, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 's mel gibson Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 EVERYBODY STOP!!! The Gibson Firebird is Walnut neck-thru. Firebirds is what walnut sounds like!. Bright and spanking at the bridge but as you use the other p'ups (if it's a VII-3) it mellows out, but Johnny Winter gets good tones out of his FB V. It's not all treble but, Steve Clark in Def Leppard sure did get that 'attack'! Whatever you're making has a chance of not sounding "thick". Maybe like a Strat on steroids if you do it right. But not even close to Les Paul sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Greg Bogoshian Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Definitely very bright and heavy. used as a cap, or maybe even a hollowbody or semi-hollowbody it would be okay, but IMHO, not the best tone choice for a solidbody. Neck-through would tend to make it even brighter. You can dampen it down some with a mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard. Maple and ebony would accentuate the brightness. It would probably sustain until the next millenium though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thredlok Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Walnut/Black Walnut is an excellent tonewood. Yes it is heavy and yes it will sound differently than a mahogany les paul. walnut is not as bright as maple, it is not as muddy as mahogany, it adds some serious punch to the notes and acoustically the notes just ring unplugged. It is an articulate tone and you can hear each note played when chording. It look good great witha natural finish! I made this from black walnut and maple. It's body is chambered to relieve some of the weight the body is about 5 lbs. and i sustains like a MOFO. Anyone who says it is not good for electric guitars never played one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members curseoftruth Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 My bass is an active electronic, solid walnut USA Fender Precision Special from 1982. I will tell you, this thing weighs a freakin ton! Was top of the line and very limited production model that year. Meaning rare and valuable!! Bur for tone, on a bass its fine. But I actually used to get shoulder cramps playing this thing due to the extreme weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DenverDave Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Walnut is a great tonewood. I falls between mahogany and maple. I don't have a walnut solid body electic guitar - but I hope to have one someday. I really liked the chambered one further up the page - a bit of weight lessoning and it does some nice tonal things too from what I have heard in other chambered guitars. But I love walnut as a tonewood. My acoustic has solid walnut back and sides and it plays and looks incredible. Here's a pic of the back of my Paragon acoustic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 [flame protector suit on] Okay folks - as any reputable luthier [not guitar manufacturer] will tell you, the type of wood used to construct a SOLID BODY guitar will have little if any effect on the tone. This "maple sounds better" stuff is urban myth - I know cause I had a bunch of luthiers piss all over me on a different forum for saying the same thing as you people are. OTOH, the type of wood and construction methods makes a huge difference to the tone of an acoustic guitar that uses the body as a resonating chamber. I have a Ric 650S with walnut wings and it looks and sounds great but the "tone" comes from the pickups and the strings, not the wood. [/flame protector suit off] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jerry_picker Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Originally posted by hondro I remember Gibson offered a walnut finish on a lot of their guitars in the late 60's and 70's but I think that was just a finish over mahogany and not solid maple IIRC walnut is bright and a great tone wood but I could be WAY off My 1978 "The Paul" has a soild walnut body: excellent tone, good sustain, a little on the dark side. Some walnut players claim that theirs are on the bright side. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DenverDave Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Originally posted by Verne Andru [flame protector suit on] Okay folks - as any reputable luthier [not guitar manufacturer] will tell you, the type of wood used to construct a SOLID BODY guitar will have little if any effect on the tone. I won't flame you in the least - but I disagree to a point. I agree that the body wood in an electric guitar has much less effect on tone than in an acoustic, but saying it has little effect is maybe overstating the case. Heck - changing the fingerboard wood has a tone effect on an electric guitar! On an acoustic it is much more obvious what the wood does, but it does effect the tone of an electric guitar. That is why a LP body with a maple cap does sound brighter in tone than one that is solid mahogany - all other factors being equal (pups, fingerboard wood, hardeware, etc). If it had little to no effect the Gibson could build LP's with basswood bodies and save a fortune in woods costs. But they don't because the wood does effect the tone - just not to the degree that it does on an acoustic. So I would have to respectfully disagree with the luthiers that flamed you. And I imagine there are luthiers that would disagree with those luthiers also..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members curseoftruth Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Originally posted by Verne Andru [flame protector suit on] Okay folks - as any reputable luthier [not guitar manufacturer] will tell you, the type of wood used to construct a SOLID BODY guitar will have little if any effect on the tone. This "maple sounds better" stuff is urban myth - I know cause I had a bunch of luthiers piss all over me on a different forum for saying the same thing as you people are.OTOH, the type of wood and construction methods makes a huge difference to the tone of an acoustic guitar that uses the body as a resonating chamber.I have a Ric 650S with walnut wings and it looks and sounds great but the "tone" comes from the pickups and the strings, not the wood. [/flame protector suit off] I won't flame you either, but I disagree 1000%. I think we should have Jim Soloway, awesome craftsman and HC member, give his take on it. In fact, most lutheriers I know are obsessed with tone woods. That is not saying electronics don't play a part, of course they do. As does the neck joint and fingerboard material. I am not one of the believers in how a finish really changes the tone much though. Prolly some, but negligable amount. Other will disagree with me on that though. I have had excellent luthiers talk to me face to face about tonewoods and the differences and what is preferred. I can tell the difference on my personal guitars with tone woods, big differences. Especially when I use the same pickups from one guitar to another and major difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thredlok Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Originally posted by Verne Andru [flame protector suit on] Okay folks - as any reputable luthier [not guitar manufacturer] will tell you, the type of wood used to construct a SOLID BODY guitar will have little if any effect on the tone. This "maple sounds better" stuff is urban myth - I know cause I had a bunch of luthiers piss all over me on a different forum for saying the same thing as you people are. OTOH, the type of wood and construction methods makes a huge difference to the tone of an acoustic guitar that uses the body as a resonating chamber. I have a Ric 650S with walnut wings and it looks and sounds great but the "tone" comes from the pickups and the strings, not the wood. [/flame protector suit off] You, Sir are just plain wrong. And how did you glean this information by having luthiers urinate on you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 A friend of mine in high school had a "The Paul" guitar from the late 70's and it was pretty muddy sounding and heavy. I don't blame the wood. More the construction and pickups. They were "Dirty Fingers" pickups which basically sucked. It seems to me that the type of wood used in building electrics or acoustics might color the tone alittle...but construction technique and electronics have way more of a significance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Originally posted by platpyus59 You, Sir are just plain wrong. And how did you glean this information by having luthiers urinate on you? As I said, I fell victim to this urban myth muself. I've spoken with several luthiers since and they've all [in hushed tones] agreed. One of them went as far as to say that they could build a guitar out of concrete and it will sound - all other things such as witness points, pickups, etc. being equal - the same as one built from wood. The type of wood is for marketing purposes only Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ExtraGum Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 This guy reminds me of a spoof of the O'Reilly program: "I say the sky is green. Prove me wrong!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thredlok Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Originally posted by Verne Andru As I said, I fell victim to this urban myth muself. I've spoken with several luthiers since and they've all [in hushed tones] agreed. One of them went as far as to say that they could build a guitar out of concrete and it will sound - all other things such as witness points, pickups, etc. being equal - the same as one built from wood. The type of wood is for marketing purposes only Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Verne Andru Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Okay - I invite you to go over to talkbass.com where you'll find a Luthiers Corner sub forum. Run this by them and report back. I'll be interested to hear about your experiences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ronaldo Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Originally posted by Verne Andru Okay - I invite you to go over to talkbass.com where you'll find a Luthiers Corner sub forum. Run this by them and report back. I'll be interested to hear about your experiences. OK assclown. Should I run this "wood burns when lit" theory by them too? Where do these people come from? I just don't get it. The wood resonating is the sound of the guitar. No luthier would ever disagree with that just because pickups and strings also factor in. How stupid do you have to be to believe that wood doesn't effect the tone on a solidbody? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DenverDave Posted January 5, 2006 Members Share Posted January 5, 2006 Here is a luthier quote on electric guitar tonewoods...Luthiers name is Alan Ratcliffe. "The influence of the wood on the tone of an electric guitar is often underappreciated. The sound comes from the strings and pickups. Right? Well... yes, but that's only a small part of the story. The pickups sense the string's vibration, true - but that vibration is influenced by almost every other part of the guitar. The different parts of the guitar all resonate, strengthening some frequencies and filtering out others. The pickups also manage to sense some of the acoustic tone from the body and add that into the equation. The body's influence adds character to all aspects of the tone, but is strongest and most obviously heard in the sustained part of the sound and the decay (as the sound fades away). The attack (the first part of the sound) is more from the fingerboard wood, and the neck has the biggest influence on the length of sustain (rather than the character) as well as having some influence on the attack." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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