which walnut?

[arie]

i'm in the process of choosing some walnut b/s for an upcoming build. i'd like to know what to expect (tone wise) from claro, english, and black walnut. i'm not too concerned about looks as i tend to favor simple straight grained pieces. the guitar is going to be a straight forward 00 or a 000 style with possibly adi or bearclaw sitka for the top, and a mahogany neck with rsw fretboard and bridge.

i've played the gibson jackson brown in english wanlut and have heard the sound samples from wade's really nice klepper aj, but i was wondering what the other types of walnut have to offer?.

thanks in advance

[Corky Long]

I've worked with Black Walnut, and not Claro or English, so there's a caveat, but I think it will depend far more on the individual pieces than the species. There's a lot of variablility of properties of samples of a single species. Also, the hardness of these walnuts is almost identical, so I'm going to guess that the sonic properties are similar.
So the issue becomes one of density of the samples themselves, and cosmetics, too.

[Alan Carruth]

I have not worked with English, but have used a lot of Black, and a fair amount of Claro, as well as one or two sets of French, and some Peruvian. To me, it's like spruce: once you control for density, it's all pretty similar, even if it looks a bit different. It has all been pretty stable, easy to bend and finish, and it's all tended to sound like Walnut. The Peruvian tends to be the least dense and hard, although I had some Black from an old church pew that was darn close. On the other end is the 'enriched' Black, with the shot in it. Usually the lead itself has dissolved, but you can see the tracks in the wood. It tends to be denser than most, and harder, and it often has an interesting random sort of figure. Ultimately, as Corky says, you just have to go by the piece.

[arie]

thanks for the replies. i was mainly concerned about any differences in tone but it seems as i suspected that it comes down to density and figure.
i buy online as there isn't a tonewood supplier that i know about within a hundred miles from me so feeling the wood isn't going to happen at this time. (maybe someone will invent a tactile internet browser) so i have to purchase tonewood at a near net thickness because of my limited processing equipment otherwise i'd buy more rougher sized wood and deal with it. i actually like working with walnut as it cuts and bends like butter.