So many walnuts...

[Dustinfurlow]

Originally Posted by LAGinz

Very nice playing. What kind of strings are you running?

Have always preferred the D’Addario EJ-24 for that particular guitar. Or EJ-16 and use a 0.13 if I run out

[colins]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

I have always been given to understand that Claro tends to be prettier than Black Walnut. And Black seems to have the better sound. Claro is pretty much Californian while Back is generally from the eastern half of of the US. Bastogne is a hybrid, one that does not reproduce, a mule so to speak. What I have seen is been exceptionally attractive-looking and I think it sounds better than Claro, but have not seen enough to make that a blanket statement. I am less sure about english and foreign walnuts. Regardless, ALL can make very nice tone wood.

Can't speak for black walnut but my claro walnut Baranik looks pretty, sounds amazing and has just got better and better in the 13 years I have owned it. Lance McCollum was another builder who did amazing work with claro.

For a good thread on walnut try this on - https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=538191 There are some interesting comments by Wade "the walnut expert" Hampton.

Col

[Murphy Slaw]

YUGE fan of walnut.

My first experience came from a walnut 79 SG. That guitar would cut through anything.

I now also own a Gibson J-15 that is a heckuva guitar.

Walnut looks good, sounds good and is plentiful.

[Pickcity]

I only have one walnut guitar, a Gibson J-15, and it is beautiful and sounds great. It is North American walnut, but I do not know the exact type. It is not a particularly booming guitar, but has plenty of volume on every string and note up and down the neck. It is somewhat different sounding than a standard J-45, but similar in volume. Excellent for a vocalist and a really versatile guitar for many styles.

I have played 3-4 different J-15's and all of them sounded great.

I have also played a couple newer Taylors with walnut b/s and loved their tone.

I suppose I'm not much help as to specifics of the different walnut types, but I have yet to play one (or look at one) that I did not like.

[redir]

Don't forget about Peruvian, Bastogne, and English walnut too!

Claro is simply Walnut from California The Austrialian or other known as Queensland Walnut is actually not a walnut. A lot of people call Imbuia Brazillian walnut too and it's actually not a walnut.

Walnut is in the Juglans family. If it's not juglans it's not Walnut. I've got both North American Black Walnut and Peruvian Walnut. The Peruvian seems to be lighter in weight and perhaps a bit softer.

Walnut makes a great guitar for sure.

The other thing about walnut is, if you have one in your back yard don't try and plant your roses around it. IT produces a toxin called juglone that kills plants as far out as it's canopy.

[Wade Hampton]

I'm a longtime fan of black walnut as a back and side wood. My first musical instrument back home in Missouri was a mountain dulcimer with black walnut back and sides and a spruce top, and I've owned a lot of black walnut instruments in the years since, dulcimers and guitars alike.

Currently I own three guitars with black walnut back and sides: a 1998 Larrivée OM-03W with an Engelmann spruce top, a 2007 Bob Clark carved back/flat top 16 inch jumbo with a Sitka spruce top and a 2011 Klepper KJ slope shoulder dreadnought with a Carpathian spruce top.

They're all great-sounding guitars.

Howard Klepper explained to me that virtually all commercially available claro walnut is cut from orchard trees in California. They're watered and fertilized and that combined with the milder climate makes the trees grow faster than if they were to struggling to survive in the wild. The result is that the wood from those trees is typically less dense than the black walnut that grows wild in climates where there are snowy winters, and that lower density can and sometimes does have an impact on the tone.

I've played some really killer-sounding claro walnut guitars, but most of the clunker walnut guitars I've played have also been made from claro. So I'm not as unreservedly enthusiastic about claro walnut as a tonewood as I am about black walnut and English/European walnut. I've liked about one in three of the claro walnut guitars I've played.

To be fair, I've liked maybe one in TEN of the koa guitars that I've played. Koa is one of my all-time favorite tonewoods, yet it's far less tonally consistent than claro walnut is. The point is with either tonewood (or any tonewood,) is to take each instrument as an individual and judge it on its own merits.

The three walnut species or subspecies I have the most personal experience with have been black walnut, claro walnut and English/European walnut. The first and last have been the most consistently musical-sounding of the three.

I've also played a handful of Bastogne walnut guitars, all of which have been excellent instruments, and fewer still made from imbuia, the so-called "Brazilian walnut, which as redir pointed out is not actually a walnut at all. That said, it looks just like it and has a similar density. Perhaps not surprisingly, it sounds like walnut as well.

Even though I spent some time in Australia and visited a few music stores while there in January, none of the stores I visited had any guitars made from so-called Queensland walnut. While I was there I did manage to play a number of Cole Clarks made from so-called Queensland maple, which is a TERRIFIC tonewood, but those were blondes, not brunettes....

Anyway, walnut is going to be in ever more common use as a guitar tonewood from now on just from simple necessity: tropical tonewoods are going to be ever less available. So luckily for us and for those acoustic guitarists who follow us, walnut is a truly great tonewood, and is visually attractive, as well.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[El Conquistador]

Here is my bastogne classical:


Looks good to me. Sounds wonderful.

Steve

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by El Conquistador

Here is my bastogne classical:


Looks good to me. Sounds wonderful.

Steve

That's gorgeous, Steve. Who made it?


whm

[El Conquistador]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

That's gorgeous, Steve. Who made it?
whm

Dave Philp of Joel Austin Guitars. https://www.joelaustinguitars.com/

Here is the build thread: https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=520655

It is a wonderful guitar.

Steve

[BrunoBlack]

I have 2 terrific walnut guitars. The English Walnut was harvested from a champion tree in Pennsylvania and I’m not sure where the Bastogne Walnut was harvested.

English Walnut



Bastogne Walnut

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

I'm a longtime fan of black walnut as a back and side wood. My first musical instrument back home in Missouri was a mountain dulcimer with black walnut back and sides and a spruce top, and I've owned a lot of black walnut instruments in the years since, dulcimers and guitars alike.

Currently I own three guitars with black walnut back and sides: a 1998 Larrivée OM-03W with an Engelmann spruce top, a 2007 Bob Clark carved back/flat top 16 inch jumbo with a Sitka spruce top and a 2011 Klepper KJ slope shoulder dreadnought with a Carpathian spruce top.

They're all great-sounding guitars.

Howard Klepper explained to me that virtually all commercially available claro walnut is cut from orchard trees in California. They're watered and fertilized and that combined with the milder climate makes the trees grow faster than if they were to struggling to survive in the wild. The result is that the wood from those trees is typically less dense than the black walnut that grows wild in climates where there are snowy winters, and that lower density can and sometimes does have an impact on the tone.

I've played some really killer-sounding claro walnut guitars, but most of the clunker walnut guitars I've played have also been made from claro. So I'm not as unreservedly enthusiastic about claro walnut as a tonewood as I am about black walnut and English/European walnut. I've liked about one in three of the claro walnut guitars I've played.

To be fair, I've liked maybe one in TEN of the koa guitars that I've played. Koa is one of my all-time favorite tonewoods, yet it's far less tonally consistent than claro walnut is. The point is with either tonewood (or any tonewood,) is to take each instrument as an individual and judge it on its own merits.

The three walnut species or subspecies I have the most personal experience with have been black walnut, claro walnut and English/European walnut. The first and last have been the most consistently musical-sounding of the three.

I've also played a handful of Bastogne walnut guitars, all of which have been excellent instruments, and fewer still made from imbuia, the so-called "Brazilian walnut, which as redir pointed out is not actually a walnut at all. That said, it looks just like it and has a similar density. Perhaps not surprisingly, it sounds like walnut as well.

Even though I spent some time in Australia and visited a few music stores while there in January, none of the stores I visited had any guitars made from so-called Queensland walnut. While I was there I did manage to play a number of Cole Clarks made from so-called Queensland maple, which is a TERRIFIC tonewood, but those were blondes, not brunettes....

Anyway, walnut is going to be in ever more common use as a guitar tonewood from now on just from simple necessity: tropical tonewoods are going to be ever less available. So luckily for us and for those acoustic guitarists who follow us, walnut is a truly great tonewood, and is visually attractive, as well.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

Thanks for posting that, Wade. I like to hear a luthier’s perspective on the qualities, even if you’re not a luthier yourself! I tend to take consumers’ reviews with a grain of salt since a lot of the impressions shared are either visually biased or tonally vague along the lines of “it sounds somewhere between rosewood and mahogany.” I’ve come to expect that the more figured the appearance the less likely it’s going to sound as good as it looks.

What I’ve heard is that black walnut is a dream to work with and I purchased a set from Stewart MacDonald to work with. It was amazingly affordable; even cheaper than cherry which is another US domestic and easily sustainable tone wood. If it bends as easily as rosewood and holds its shape then I’ll be extremely pleased. My only prior experience in working with walnut was making a jewelry box from a Rockler kit and my impression has been that it’s pretty stable (for my climate at least) but that it has huge pores.

From a player’s perspective though I have very little experience other than one of Tim McKnights builds (a Soli Deo Gloria model with a depth similar to an OM IIRC) that was paired with an Adi top. It did tend to have more fundamental but the aero had great sustain. Based on that impression I’d prefer black walnut to mahogany.

[Deft Tungsman]

Originally Posted by Haasome

I have 2 terrific walnut guitars. The English Walnut was harvested from a champion tree in Pennsylvania and I’m not sure where the Bastogne Walnut was harvested.

English Walnut



Bastogne Walnut

Now, there's some beeeyuuutiful walnut! Congratulations!

[mischultz]

Another black walnut data point is scheduled to arrive this weekend.

[jonbee]

I owned a '16 Taylor 416 LTD, California Claro B/S, Canadian red cedar top, Eastern hard rock maple neck. All North American non-endangered woods, and a gorgeous instrument to play and hear. I didn't miss the rosewood, as the walnut was a great, and similar sounding wood.
I'd have no qualms about getting another.

[jimmy bookout]

I love Walnut for all the reasons listed...

And now I have to show off. My 2 Gardiners, Concert model (Cocobolo) on the left, Parlor (Claro Walnut) on the right.