Walnut as a tonewood?

[dougbeens]

How would walnut sound for a building a guitar with? I'm thinking mainly about necks, but whatever....

 

 

What do you think?

[jerry_picker]

 

The one on the right is a 1978 Gibson "The Paul": walnut tip-to-toe. It is a little dark (tonally), but a good player.

[robt57]

This 11lbs DIY Nocaster Nashville Tele I built has a 4 piece Black Walnut 1-1/8" thick back with a 5/8" thick single piece Hard Ash top/front. You can't see the back in the pic, and it is a porker... With the Fralins and a lil`59er Seymour middle PU, it is my best sounding guitar out of 7. It is heavy wood though! And it takes an oil finish like butter, like butter.

 

 

Big pic w/o strings:

 

Pic of Back:

 

 

 

[T3]

far more commonly used for bass, it sounds good... its heavy, as has been said, and dark, but with a lot of clarity.

[UGB]

you can get any Carvin out of walnut. A local luthier builds all of his acoustics out of walnut.

[Darkstorm]

Thinks walnuts is best used as follows in guitars & basses: In necks just when they are 5 peice with the 2 middle peices being walnut. In bodies: Same as maple, which is as tops only. Walnut imo doesnt have a broad enough sound to me, but is very useful to color the sound of other woods.

[jerry_picker]

 

Originally posted by Darkstorm Thinks walnuts is best used as follows in guitars & basses: In necks just when they are 5 peice with the 2 middle peices being walnut. In bodies: Same as maple, which is as tops only. Walnut imo doesnt have a broad enough sound to me, but is very useful to color the sound of other woods.

 

 

I believe that the Ric Dakota has some American Black Walnut in it, married to rock maple.

http://www.rickenbacker.com/us/650d.htm

[jrkirkish]

Any guitar made in the 70's had a variant made out of walnut. any guitar. SGs, teles, strats, basses, LPs. Walnut was very popular back then, along with metallic burst finishes.

 

The sound is supposed to be a darker maple, thus it's use in the Ric Dakota and Laguna (check out the Laguna) it's a 330 made of walnut.

['56Goldtop]

Works well on my Rickenbacher 650D.

[thredlok]

But using it in the body gives you clarity, and projection. This is a hollow tele that I made of black walnut. sounds pretty good to me.

[Paul Buerk]

Depends on what kind of walnut you're talking about. Claro is great for acoustics, OK for electrics. Banjo necks have been made out of Black Walnut for a long time. I've even used Peruvian Walnut for an acoustic neck, but I wouldn't recommend it without a strong fingerboard and graphite reinforcement.

 

Otherwise, it's a joy to work. Finding stock without knots in the most inopportune places can be a chore.

[Blues Power]

i have the same "The Paul" as Jerry Picker has above. its a very soft wood and dings easily. like he said it has a heavy tonal sound especially with the ebony FB..

I added a pair of super D's to brighten it up. Id put it up against any guitar for blues and clasic rock. to me its the best sounding electrci guitar that i have and i own 8.

 

Its also very very lite weight comapred to a standard or SG.