All Walnut Guitar

[donlyn]

All Walnut Guitar

I have a Taylor all-walnut Jumbo. For the record, that includes top, back and sides. I string it with Elixir Mediums. (Sorry kmtyb, but Elixirs work great for me combined with picking using my fingernails. And the coating diminishes any string scraping sounds. I use Elixirs on all my guitars. And I don't have any slippery feelings, maybe due to a lot of callus build-up. I tried the SC Med strings and they are not true Mediums. If you are using a pick, you might want to try a few different gauge picks too.)

This is the only six-string on which I still use Mediums. I believe it is necessary to properly drive the top and maximize the sound. The tone reminds me of an old fashioned Gibson or Epiphone Archtop style guitar. And not plugged in either. The other six-string guitars I own mostly sport Elixir PB HD gauge.

A far cry from sitka over rosewood to be sure.

I also fingerpick all my guitars using my fingernails as picks. This one sounds different and special.

And the neck is different from a regular Taylor neck carve too, and is exceptionally easy to play.

Don
.

[Quickstep192]

I'd suggest DR Sunbeams or DR Rare.

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by Retired1

Where are you getting the American roots for $5 - best I've seen is $8

Local shop in Barkeyville, PA. Maybe Im getting the friends and family rate, as the owner is an old friend…

[s2y]

I love my walnut/spruce Taylor 12 fret. I agree with others that perhaps hardwood soundboards aren't your thing. On top of different strings, maybe try different tunings and capo positions. Maybe something will jump out.

[printer2]

I built a walnut bodied guitar, reduced the mass of the top by reducing the thickness. I think it came in around 0.087". It sounded great. Had a recording of it online but Microsoft's drive did not think the file was getting enough love and it seems to have disappeared. Oh well the Youtube one will have to do. Just a one take recording a guy at work did with a zoom recorder for me. so dry (which I don't mind, I like to hear what the guitar sounds like not the room).



It was an experimental guitar, I just took scraps and threw them together as there was a thread asking what an all walnut guitar would sound like.

[Dru Edwards]

Fred, what a beautiful guitar! Within 3 seconds of hearing it I thought "woke up to the sound of pouring rain". Is that what you were playing? It may have been a coincidence. I bought that Skid Row tape when it came out in '89 and learned that song (along with others).

Originally Posted by printer2

I built a walnut bodied guitar, reduced the mass of the top by reducing the thickness. I think it came in around 0.087". It sounded great. Had a recording of it online but Microsoft's drive did not think the file was getting enough love and it seems to have disappeared. Oh well the Youtube one will have to do. Just a one take recording a guy at work did with a zoom recorder for me. so dry (which I don't mind, I like to hear what the guitar sounds like not the room).



It was an experimental guitar, I just took scraps and threw them together as there was a thread asking what an all walnut guitar would sound like.

[printer2]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Fred, what a beautiful guitar! Within 3 seconds of hearing it I thought "woke up to the sound of pouring rain". Is that what you were playing? It may have been a coincidence. I bought that Skid Row tape when it came out in '89 and learned that song (along with others).

Oh heck no, can't play to save my life. Hope to spend more time practicing once the snow flies. That was a guy from a place I used to work. Thank you on the guitar, I think it could have used a rosette and the fretboard and bridge a little darker. I think it is too light for the walnut. But it was only built with scraps, I never thought I would use the walnut for anything other than binding or in a sandwich of a multi-piece neck. I just did a mat finish on it because I thought it looked a little plain. It is way off quarter sawn and what they do when kiln drying the wood is have the color bleed into the sap wood from the heartwood. Eventually when I get my bandsaw working right I have some nice walnut to slice into back and sides. Would I make another top? I would have to see if I have a lighter weight piece.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Rosewood99

It’s always going to sound quiet. The same thing happened with an all ovangkol guitar I used to own. Both are hard woods and the tops do not provide a lot of volume.

I can only remember playing one Walnut topped guitar, while I liked the tone quite a bit, I do remember it being pretty quiet.

Just curious, but have you tried heaveyer strings, maybe even just tuning down a half step just to see what happens.

[tadol]

Most hardwood topped guitars are more midrange and fundamental, but many factory guitars are built to the same specs as their spruce topped ones. I’ve played a walnut topped guitar by Bruce Sexauer that was quite amazing, and I would imagine that other, equally skilled and experienced builders could do similar, but the market for high-end hardwood topped guitars is rather limited -

[printer2]

Originally Posted by tadol

Most hardwood topped guitars are more midrange and fundamental, but many factory guitars are built to the same specs as their spruce topped ones. I’ve played a walnut topped guitar by Bruce Sexauer that was quite amazing, and I would imagine that other, equally skilled and experienced builders could do similar, but the market for high-end hardwood topped guitars is rather limited -

I was building mine about the same time he was building his. He told me not to leave the top too thick, I measured mine and it was in the 0.085" range his was in. Mind you mine was an 0 size while his was larger. My best wood barely comes up to his standards, boy I would love to browse his wood stash. Maybe one day I will get to talk to him in person. I learned a lot following his threads on his building in the Custom Shop section on the forum.

[Alan Carruth]

Walnut tends to have a Young's modulus along the grain that's similar to that of spruce, but walnut is a lot denser, in general. Young's modulus predicts the stiffness at a given thickness, so if you make a walnut top to the same stiffness as a spruce one the walnut will be heavier. Because of the added weight it's harder to move, so not as powerful, and especially hard to move at high frequencies, so the treble is not as strong. If you make the top thinner, to get the same weight as a spruce top, it's not as stiff, and you need to beef up the bracing some to make up for that. I find it hard to get the the trebles as good as I'd like with that sort of setup.

I made an all-walnut acoustic-electric ABG a couple of years ago, specifically because I wanted the top to be heavy to help avoid feedback issues when it was amplified. It worked out OK.

[kmtyb]

Thank you for all the Feed back. This guitar is by far the easiest to play out of all the guitars I have. It has the best fundamental tones but lacks volume. I will try few other strings recommended but at the end it might be "it is what it is". Picture of the beautiful All Walnut.

[printer2]

Probably a good guitar for apartment dwellers.