Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

[fenderiarhs]

I have found a guitar with a walnut body and i have never before seen a guitar with this kind of wood.........What are the tonal caracteristics of walnut?......the owner of the guitar told me it is similar to mahogany is that true?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

Albert King's Flying V that Dan Erlewine built for him about 1970 and which he played for the rest of his life was black walnut. That guitar sure sounded good when Albert played it and you can hear it on the album he recorded with SRV. But Albert would sound great playing just about anything. Dan also built a Strat for Otis Rush and a Les Paul for a friend of mine from the same walnut log. I had the Les Paul in my workshop for a while and I didn't like it. I thought that the tone lacked resonance and had more "ping" to the tone than a normal Les Paul. That's about my only experience with a 100% walnut guitar. Good for furniture, but not my favorite wood for a guitar...

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

Walnut as a tone wood is very similar to maple in texture, tone and weight... It´s a bit warmer, and some people swear by it, but It´s not something I´ve generally recommended over the years

 

[fenderiarhs]

Re: Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

infact that's what i was afraid of. I have found a beautiful hamer chapparal (i've been gasing for one for ages but it is impossible to find a 1st version one with the 24.75 neck) custom elite with nitrocellulose finish, glued in maple neck, ebony fingerboard for a quite good price but with a walnut body....i would prefer the tried and tested mahogany instead.....
I 've made a search on the internet and half the sites are saying that walnut falls somewhere between rosewood and mahogany tonewise(which i prefer) and the other half say it is similar to maple(which agrees with your description and that's bad....... :evil: )
So i guess i'll have to pass.....

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

Well, when you consider players like Lynch and Lee, a brighter wood isnt necessarily bad, and walnut isn´t that much brighter than swamp ash....about halfway between that and maple...

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

Lots of the high end basses use walnut, and maple laminates, I'm thinking about a walnut body with a maple neck for a future project.

Luke

 

[Boston Joe]

Re: Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

I have found walnut in guitars to be sonically all over the map with no real definitive tone. Too much treble and bottom end; mids are rather bland--no focus; dark without the warmth, and a bright but abrassive bite. On stage you can get away with it; in the studio I found it hopeless.

And yet, pretty good for bass.

 

[xerxes]

Re: Walnut as a guitars body wood.......

well, i dont know about tonewise, but i have seen a few walnut strats and they look reaaaaaaallly good