daniboy Posted October 24, 2010 Report Share Posted October 24, 2010 hey guys, i am planning to build a 7-string tele with a bolt-on 25" scale neck. guess i am pretty fixed on using wenge and ebony for the neck and fingerboard respectively due to the fact i like the feel of raw wood. question is, what will a walnut body add to the tonal equation? this guitar will be used for rock/metal where a quick bass response especially on the low b is required as well as a rounded tone on the plain strings. read not ice-picky. i did consider swamp ash for its tight and snappy lows but am afraid that it will have too toppy a high end. i read on frank's falbo wood guide that walnut is a good choice since it has snappy lows like swamp ash, mids like alder and highs like mahogany. any of you who built/played a walnut body guitar had similar experience? what else would you recommend besides walnut taking into consideration the neck and fingerboard wood. many thanks, dani Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Bennett Posted October 24, 2010 Report Share Posted October 24, 2010 Walnut's probably a great choice. Walnut guitars are fine, but I totally love a Walnut bass. Your low B should be happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Ross Posted October 24, 2010 Report Share Posted October 24, 2010 I love walnut, it's easy to work, and smells like cinnamon I built my prototype out of it; it sounds great and is a very comfortable weight. I also have two awesome Dingwall Afterburner basses that have walnut and bubinga bodies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniboy Posted October 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2010 thanks guys. any feedback on its tonal properties? i did a search on the forum and some said it was bright while others thought it was warm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted October 24, 2010 Report Share Posted October 24, 2010 thanks guys. any feedback on its tonal properties? i did a search on the forum and some said it was bright while others thought it was warm. I found that as well. It's supposed to be no the bright side, but I haven't found that at all. I've made two guitars and one neck from walnut, and I've found the tone to be pretty balanced and very pleasing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted October 25, 2010 Report Share Posted October 25, 2010 From the walnut I have built and the few others I have heard it tends to be on the brighter side, but it is a different bright. Maple is very bright and is kind of piercing. Walnut is bright and brings out the high notes, but it is not piercing it is a lot more of a pleasing sound I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J_48_Johnson Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 +1 on what ihocky2 said. Mine was mahogany capped with 1/2" walnut and it is a warmer shade of brite as compared to maple. Something I also noticed was that the pick attack seemed to be more pronounced than on maple capped guitars I've made. Maybe that was the pickups or a combination of other things, but the attack is strong with my walnut Strat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 i don't find walnut bright at all..more "creamy" and warm.But it does have a semi-focused low end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helldunkel Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 hey guys, i am planning to build a 7-string tele with a bolt-on 25" scale neck. guess i am pretty fixed on using wenge and ebony for the neck and fingerboard respectively due to the fact i like the feel of raw wood. question is, what will a walnut body add to the tonal equation? this guitar will be used for rock/metal where a quick bass response especially on the low b is required as well as a rounded tone on the plain strings. read not ice-picky. i did consider swamp ash for its tight and snappy lows but am afraid that it will have too toppy a high end. i read on frank's falbo wood guide that walnut is a good choice since it has snappy lows like swamp ash, mids like alder and highs like mahogany. any of you who built/played a walnut body guitar had similar experience? what else would you recommend besides walnut taking into consideration the neck and fingerboard wood. many thanks, dani While I wont talk about sound (and you will understand why), I thought I would shime in to explain something.... Here is an article I wrote about the subject: sound and species When you mention ''walnut'', which ''walnut'' are you talking about? You do however mention the specie of the ''ash'' which in this case is swamp ash..... ''Walnut'' is a generic therm which does not really mean anything... My point is, there are several different species of ''walnut'' out there which all have a different stiffeness to weight ratio... What does this mean? Basically and to make this simple, this means that they will sound totally different from eachother.... stiffeness to weight ratio is the major factor of what produces the sound of the wood on a musical instrument and which makes you say that it either sounds warm or bright........ Here are some exemples from my private stock: Claro Walnut: Some more Claro Walnut but this time with some figurine which means that the structure of the wood totally differs from the previous exemple so by default which means that in no way can this wood sound the same then the previous exemple... Franquette Walnut Here is a neck for exemple which I built using Claro Walnut which is extremely stiff: etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc....... Now here are some more exemple of different species... My point is, be sure to know which walnut you are talking about before to say ''walnut sounds bright'' walnut has more mids'' etc because it makes no sens..... Hopefully this clarifies what the big marketing guys have done to try and place a specific sound on a generic name... Same when you buy a ''mahogany'' guitar.... What does this mean? Nothing... haha Yet people still say ''mahogany sounds warm and muddy'' and maple sounds ''bright and snappy'' *Argentine Walnut *Brazilian Walnut *California Walnut *Hinds' Walnut *Nuevo Leon Walnut *West Indies Walnut *Arizona Walnut *Texas Walnut or Little Walnut *Mexican Walnut *Andean Walnut * Juglans nigra L. - Black Walnut *Peruvian Walnut * Juglans soratensis Manning - *Guatemalan Walnut *Venezuela Walnut *Japanese Walnut etc etc etc etc....... Something else which is very funny.... Before guys used to say '''rosewood sounds like this, like that'' until finally the customs put their hands on the brazilian rosewood (dalbergia nigra specie) which is now illegal to export and about to dissapear.... Now the funny thing is that the indutry started to use different species and we all know now that there is ''indian rosewood'', ''bolivian rosewood'' which also all have their very distinguished sounds etc etc etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daniboy Posted October 30, 2010 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 thanks for the response guys and good call patrick. and that's probably why so many people has got polar opposites experience with walnut. some said it is slightly less bright than maple while some say it is slightly brighter than mahogany. i will be using black walnut since they are readily available. care to chime in about black walnut's tone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helldunkel Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 thanks for the response guys and good call patrick. and that's probably why so many people has got polar opposites experience with walnut. some said it is slightly less bright than maple while some say it is slightly brighter than mahogany. i will be using black walnut since they are readily available. care to chime in about black walnut's tone? exactly, finally, thank you EDIT: about the black walnut (The Eastern Black walnut (Juglans nigra) is a species of flowering tree in the hickory family) It all depends how you are going to combine it with the hundereds of other ingredients which makes for the final sound of your instrument.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avengers63 Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 i will be using black walnut since they are readily available. care to chime in about black walnut's tone? It all depends how you are going to combine it with the hundereds of other ingredients which makes for the final sound of your instrument.... If you wanted to take it one step further, the same species can grow in different places, but due to varying conditions it can be structurally different in subtle ways and sound different. Heck, different parts of the same tree could potentially suffer from the same effect. You could literally say that you will never truly know EXACTLY what it will sound like until it's done. Or you can go with the well known, general properties that we're all aware of. I'm not going to knock hufschmid's knowledge, but this is a classic example of 1) overthinking the whole thing, and 2) asking what time it is and being told how to make a clock. Except he's not telling you how to make the clock, but that you have to understand HOW to make the clock before you can truly know how to tell time. Essentially, (again - no disrespect ) he hasn't given you any of the information you've asked for. All of the walnut I've used has been the same American black walnut you're looking at. using. It'll sound great. Now stop analyzing a fairly simple process and get to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helldunkel Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Now stop analyzing a fairly simple process and get to work. That's the thing, he would learn much more by actually putting his hands in the dust and learning by what he created as opose to ask for different opinions which at the end dont really make much sens since there are so many different varieties and sounds and most of all opinions... If 10 members tell him that walnut sounds bright, you will convince him if that's what he is looking for and maybe who knows the final result may very well be a bright sounding instrument but that would be more a hit and miss experience for him instead to actually try and understand what is really going on and why its not accurate to say that walnut sounds bright with more mids for exemple... The reason why I enjoy posting in here from time to time is because I receive about 30 mails a week from guys who want to start a project and expect some free tips and information from me... So I end up sending them to project guitar If you wanted to take it one step further, the same species can grow in different places, but due to varying conditions it can be structurally different in subtle ways and sound different. Heck, different parts of the same tree could potentially suffer from the same effect. You could literally say that you will never truly know EXACTLY what it will sound like until it's done. exactly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geo Posted November 1, 2010 Report Share Posted November 1, 2010 All I got to say is... Walnut is great. Go make some sawdust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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