New Howard Klepper Advanced Jumbo in black walnut build project
 

Howard Klepper and I have been kicking around some ideas for a guitar for the last month or so, and we've finally gotten all those highly enjoyable "blue sky" discussions narrowed down to the point where we can talk about the guitar he's going to build for me.

Although I've ordered and received a number of custom guitars, mountain dulcimers and mandolins over the years, I've never started a build thread on this forum. But I've been watching a few instruments progress online here, and decided that some of you might find this new build order interesting.

As some of you who've read my posts may know, I'm a longtime fan of black walnut as a back and sides wood - when handled right, it can be an absolutely superb tonewood.

In some ways, it's a lot like koa, with a good overall tonal balance. But it's got a slightly quicker response than koa, and generally isn't as "lush" sounding. As a general rule, black walnut is a clear, loud, balanced, projective tonewood. It works especially well in instruments intended for use in group settings.

For a long time now I've had black walnut instruments that are companion pieces to some of my other stage instruments: in addition to my rosewood Baxendale Mossman 000-42, I've got a black walnut Larrivée OM-03W; in addition to my koa Blue Lion mountain dulcimer, I've got a Sitka spruce and black walnut Waterman mountain dulcimer that can heard over the loudest bluegrass jam session. So black walnut is a wood that's near and dear to my heart: I've had instruments made from it from the very start of my musical endeavors, and I like having walnut instruments for those musical situations where I find it to be the best choice.

I make a differentiation between black walnut and other species of walnut, simply because I've had better musical luck with it. Claro walnut can be incredibly gorgeous, but I've played a lot of visually spectacular claro walnut guitars that didn't do much for me as musical instruments. There are other walnut species in use as tonewoods, as well, but for this guitar I wanted to stick with black walnut. We had black walnut trees on the rural property we owned in Missouri when I was a kid, and so it has a personal connection for me that more exotic woods don't.

In any event, Howard Klepper and I have been kicking around some ideas for some time now, and have settled on a black walnut Advanced Jumbo. Howard has become more interested in working with vintage guitar designs recently, and I wanted a walnut companion guitar to the Indian rosewood and Sitka spruce 2001 Gibson Advanced Jumbo I got this past spring and which I've been using as my main performance guitar ever since.

Howard poked around in his wood stash, and even though he has some other walnut that has more flamboyant figure to it, for the musical results I'm after we decided this particular set was the one to use:

Here's the back:

http://pic40.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../394237377.jpg

Howard wrote me an email this morning that I'm quoting from here:

Here are the back and sides together:

http://pic40.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../394237379.jpg

And here's the top:

http://pic40.picturetrail.com:80/VOL.../394237380.jpg

Howard wrote:


Howard plans to shoot a dark sunburst finish on the top, keeping in mind that I really prefer that the pigmentation of the 'burst be as close as possible to the walnut set we've chosen.

Not all of the details have been determined yet, but here's the plan and the appointments as we envision them right now:

Howard Klepper vintage style Advanced Jumbo

Body style: round-shouldered dreadnought, 14 fret body join.

Top wood: Carpathian spruce (Picea albies)

Back and sides wood: American black walnut

Neck and body binding: to be determined (tbd)

Fingerboard & bridge woods: tbd, but probably rosewood.

Tuning gears: Gotoh vintage style gears.

Fingerboard & peghead inlays: precise pattern tbd, but in gold mother of pearl.

Scale length: 25.5 inches

Nut width: 1 3/4 inches

Electronics: tbd

Nut and saddle material: bone


As for whether the bridge saddle will be the traditional "through saddle" design used in Gibson AJ's or the more modern contained saddle is something we'll decide later on in the process. I'm not convinced that through saddles are any more efficient or have a huge influence on the tone, but more research is needed before that feature gets decided.

One thing for certain is that through saddles do limit the electronics options, as most undersaddle pickups don't work all that well under them. But we'll see.

In any event, I'm just stoked that Howard Klepper wants to build this guitar for me! I'm really looking forward to his reports as he progresses.

In conclusion, I'll just quote Howard's email from this morning one more time:

Off we go, indeed...


Wade Hampton Miller

I am happy to see your pics of the chosen woods. Good luck on your build, 8 suspect it will turn out very special.

When will he get started on the project?

Scott

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your excitement! I look forward to seeing how your new guitar grows :)

Fliss

Ah, I see why you were so excited! Congratulations!

very, very nice.

That looks great!

Congrats Wade and Howard.....I'm sure Howard will make it sound as good as it will look!! Keep us updated guys ...pic's and all!

This is going to be a great guitar - where are the next pics?!!!:D:D

Thanks, all. More pictures will arrive as Howard takes them.


whm

I'm confused. I don't see how this is going to be a black guitar. I guess it will look better after it's painted?

When my grandfather remarried, his new wife asked my parents what they wanted for Christmas. They asked for red wine glasses.

Come Christmas day, she handed them a wrapped box, complaining "These were really hard to find." Tensions were already running high, and it seemed she thought my parents had given her something hard to buy on purpose.

Inside the box? Wine glasses with clear bases and stems, topped by the most gosh-awful shade of off-red bowls.

TA DA!

Congratulations on your new project. I love the details you've settled on and how you came to them, and look forward to seeing your black walnut guitar. Emphasis on walnut.

~ S.

You got plenty of time to rethink that option.

Looking forward to pics of the progress.

Sarah, black walnut is not actually black it's just the name of the wood.....

Wade,what kind of neck profile are you going with??? does Howard have his own type of profile or did you just describe what you wanted???

Wade, Congrats on your new build..The Black walnut/carpathian combo is stunning.. and with Howards touch ..should produce an instrument with great tone, dynamic range with headroom to spare.........It'll be fun to watch this build progress..Can ardley wait to see the bracing pattern .......(:

Black walnut is a species of walnut common to Missouri and elsewhere in the Lower 48 states, not the actual color of the wood or the shade of lacquer Howard will spraying on it. I think it's called "black" walnut because the bark on the tree is very dark, though not actually black.

This guitar will be the same shade of dark brown you see in the photos, and the sunburst will be matched to the natural color of the back and sides as closely as Howard can match it.

Hope that clears up any confusion.


Wade Hampton Miller

Uhm
 

I was joking, as I was hoping my red wine glass story would illustrate...?

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Ho, ho, ho!

~ S.

Congrats Wade...very nice set of black walnut!

I'm excited about this project. Wade has been great to work with. He has a discriminating ear, and it's helpful for a builder to get a versatile, experienced player's perspective on things. One thing we keep noticing is that we will talk about the same thing in different language. He might mention quickness and sustain of a wood, for example, and I translate it into density and damping. This has been interesting for both of us.

Another great thing about working with Wade is that it really is first and foremost about sound with him. The black walnut set has great curl, but that wasn't his first consideration; he wanted it to be stiff, dense, and tap well. When I told him I have a great top I want to use that has a little color variation (the standard for Euro spruce to get a Master grade is pure white), he didn't hesitate to OK it (actually, the color really gives it a vintage red spruce vibe that I like).

And he's given me a lot of artistic license on trim design, and also on interior design. This guitar will be loosely based on a vintage AJ, but beyond copying the slope D shape and aiming for a vintage AJ sound, I don't need to duplicate the bracing, liners, etc.. The trim choices will allude to a Gibson AJ, but make no attempt to be a copy. So this is my interpretation of an AJ; not a reproduction.

For example, we've chosen these as the fretboard inlays. Suggestive of the AJ, but different.

http://pic40.picturetrail.com/VOL362.../394250789.jpg

Binding may be Ceylon satinwood. The bridge will likely be the simple AJ style rectangle in Brazilian or Mad Rose.

I have a couple of other guitars to get out the door before this one becomes my main focus, so photos may be slow in coming for a week or two. Thanks to all who have commented.

That's actually one of the details we've yet to thrash out. The neck on my existing Gibson AJ is like a rock and roll electric guitar neck, very fast and slim, but we haven't yet gotten to the point where it's crucial that we decide what the neck profile on this one is going to be.

We only just both signed off on the woods and body shape a few days ago! There were a lot of options for us both to consider.

As for working with Howard, it's been fun. As he mentioned, I'm not the sort of custom guitar customer who'll tell a guitarbuilder where and how to build or brace a guitar - that would be like Howard coming up to me in the middle of a performance and telling me what chord voicings or tempos I should be using in a song:

"You're doing it all WRONG! 'Born To Be Wild' is supposed to be a soft, gentle BALLAD!!"

Every handbuilder I know has had experiences with custom guitar customers who try to micromanage every aspect of the build - though Howard is extremely discreet and has never so much as hinted about any such experiences. But I know he's had customers who have a hard time discerning where that line needs to be drawn, simply because folks like that do go with the territory when you're a custom guitarbuilder.

But that is most emphatically not my style. My approach to a custom instrument order is more like: "Here's the sound I'm looking for, I'd kinda like it to be in this body shape, and that set of wood looks like it might work." As for the rest of it, I'm more like: "Go get 'em, tiger!"

Because what I've discovered over the years is that luthiers get most inspired and deliver their finest efforts when you sort of point them in the direction you'd like them to go, and then turn them loose.

As for which tonewoods are most fashionable or whether there's bearclaw figure in the top or any of that, to me it's unimportant because none of that bears directly on the tone. I never order a custom instrument for the bragging rights, I do it to get an instrument that I can't get any other way.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

Excellent choice in choosing Howard Klepper. I too have been considering a dread with Howard.... maybe Brazilian, maybe that Pernambuco. He has some very interesting sets of wood and sure knows how to create a piece of art!

I really like those inlay designs! While I have great respect for the 'Mighty AJ', I've never liked the fingerboard and headstock inlays. I think Stan Jay of Mandolin Bros termed the original inlays the "fast forward-fast reverse" inlay set. :)

Those, as you say, Howard, evoke the originals, but develop the thought a bit.

Cool.

The look of the black walnut seems quite similar to that of koa or Tasmanian blackwood/acacia(?). Also, very nice.

Fred

It's funny you should mention that, Fred, but Howard told me that another well-regarded handbuilder stopped by his shop the other day, looked at the wood set that Howard and I had decided upon, and thought at first that it was Tasmanian blackwood. In any event, this other luthier was impressed by the tap tone and stiffness of the walnut set and told Howard that it would produce a superior quality instrument.


whm

However good the tonal quality of the black walnut back and sides is, and I believe it will be really good, no aesthetics were sacrificed in the choice which you and Howard made, Wade Hampton. The wood is gorgeous. I, too, and looking forward to the progress of this guitar.

Congratulations to you both!

Bill

Well, of the four or five "finalist" wood sets that Howard sent me pictures of, this set of black walnut really was the least "glamorous." Howard's reaction to my choice was: "Really?" because he's got an extraordinary number of just staggeringly gorgeous sets. All of my other choices were considerably more striking from a visual standpoint. But this one felt right to me, and I know Howard's perfectly happy to be working with this set, or he wouldn't have included it in my choices to begin with.

Anyone who orders an instrument from Howard will get memorably attractive wood on it. He's got a remarkable collection of guitar sets, and I know there are a huge number that I didn't see, for the simple reason that I told him at the start that I wasn't interested in maple, Brazilian rosewood or any other member of the rosewood family, for that matter. I was interested in black walnut.

Howard did try to entice me with some outstanding koa and one set of Tasmanian blackwood that's one of the most beautiful sets of guitar wood that I've ever seen. I was tempted, because acacias like koa and Tasmanian and Australian blackwood are close cousins to black walnut in terms of their acoustic properties. But I stuck to my guns and went with black walnut, as I'd originally intended.

My loss is somebody else's gain - that Tasmanian blackwood Howard has is going to make a terrific guitar for somebody

Thanks, Bill. I'm looking forward to it, too, obviously.


Wade Hampton Miller

Hi Wade. I think you understand that what I meant was that this selection of walnut will look great in its own right. Frankly, I don't get too caught up in the visual appearance of the back of a guitar. Admittedly, I enjoy looking at the grain and color and such of the entire guitar as much as anyone, but not many of us display our guitars to show off the back, and we don't see the back when we play them. ;) I have no doubt that your choice will prove splendid on all counts.

Bill

Oh, I agree, and I knew what you were saying. I was just making the point that the other sets Howard showed me were even more visually arresting.

But, yes, it's a very nice-looking set of wood, and it will do its job, no question about it. I'm actually very stoked that that set of wood is going onto this guitar.


whm

I am glad you stuck to your guns about your choice of woods. At least you won't have to wonder "what if"... I have no doubt Howard will build you a stellar guitar. Despite the fact the guitars that I have seen from Howard are all exceptional works of art, I have no doubt that at the core, these guitars are exceptional instruments that happen to be works of art not the other way around. Glad to see someone who is a active performing musician stepping to the plate. I might just have to do that myself!

I got it, and I thought it was pretty funny. I seem to tell lots of "jokes" that cause folks to try to explain things to me reeeaaalll.... ssslloowwwwww.....

Looking forward to more pics, Wade! I love the burst top with Walnut b/s!

Now, that's funny. Also: thank you.

Likewise!

~ S.

I promise that the pictures will get posted as Howard gets a chance to take them. He's in the middle of finishing up a couple of other guitars right now - what he and I have been doing is thrashing through some of the details even as this thread has been posted and added to by you all. But actual work on the guitar itself hasn't yet commenced, other than deciding on the materials and appointments.

My guess is that we're at least a week or so or more away from getting any more photos, simply because there won't be any progress to photograph before then.

But check back every so often - I suspect that this is going to be one of those threads that keeps reappearing when you least expect it.


whm

Wade, I know absolutely nothing about black walnut as a tonewood, and I'm really looking forward to this thread's progression. I think the wood you and Howard have chosen looks great, and it's clear that your focus is on the tone. I think this is going to be a thread that documents a great build. Congratulations!