What might an all-walnut guitar sound like?

[ewalling]

Just curious - does anyone know? Would it be similar to an all-mahogany guitar?

[SongwriterFan]

Somewhat similar, yes.

I believe there's somebody here who has a few of them (just can't remember who it is).

[Wade Hampton]

I own a number of walnut guitars - walnut is one of my favorite tonewoods - but all of mine have spruce tops on them. This is not by accident. I find spruce tops to be necessary for my playing because of their volume, projection and wider array of tone colors.

I have played quite a few all-walnut guitars and even more all-walnut mountain dulcimers. Mountain dulcimer was my first musical instrument when I was starting out playing music back home in Missouri, and in that state, anyway, walnut is the most common and most popular dulcimer wood.

To answer your question, all-walnut guitars typically are quite a bit quieter than equivalent spruce-topped walnut guitars. Walnut is just about the hardest hardwood you can use as a guitar top and still get any tone or volume out of it.

But walnut tops can't vibrate as efficiently as spruce tops, due to their greater density, so the sound is quieter and the tone is simpler. You won't get as many overtones and tone colors to play with as you will with spruce.

On the positive side of the ledger, there's usually a nice clarity to the sound. There isn't as much sustain as with a spruce top, but this can be used to musical advantage when you're playing country blues or ragtime, because fingerpicked bass lines and counter-melodies stand out more clearly.

The all-walnut guitars I've played have not had as much bass response as similar guitars with spruce tops, but perhaps because of that and their overall clarity the trebles ring out clearly.

You wrote:

Originally Posted by ewalling

Would it be similar to an all-mahogany guitar?

Kind of like an all-mahogany guitar, only more so. All of those all-mahogany guitar tonal characteristics you might be familiar with are present but taken a step or two further. If you ever get a chance to play an all-mahogany guitar and an all-walnut guitar side by side you'll hear what I'm talking about: the all-walnut guitar will typically be a little bit quieter, have a little bit simpler tone, have a little bit less sustain. And because most walnut is a bit harder and denser than most mahogany used for guitar construction, an all-walnut guitar will usually take a while longer to break in and come into its full sound than an all-mahogany guitar will.

Which is a considerable amount of time for both of them, really, when you compare them to the break-in time of spruce-topped guitars.

Anyway, all-walnut guitars are the sort of instruments that can be drop-dead gorgeous to look at, but their usual tonal characteristics make them most useful to a fairly elite group of players. They're not for everybody, that's for sure.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[harmonics101]

Isn't Walnut a hardwood like Maple ?

So, I'd imagine that it would have a clear tone with very few overtones, at least that's how my Gibson maple guitars sound like, clean and clear.

Course, that's with a sitka spruce top, as Wade indicates, if Walnut is hard and stiff like Maple, I don't think you really want a Walnut top, unless you want a really really quiet guitar, electronics aside of course,

I imagine, an all hardwood guitar plugged in, would sound extremely clean,

H

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by ewalling

Just curious - does anyone know? Would it be similar to an all-mahogany guitar?

The one and only one I have ever played (Santa Cruz) sounded like a quiet, less responsive, all mahogany guitar.

I wasn't impressed. Only one guitar though.

[Halcyon/Tinker]

Pretty much as stated. I tell customers asking for all mahogany guitars that it is a 'niche' instrument. Midrangy, compressed, and bluesy. Not a bad sound by any means, just not as versatile as any spruce. Kinda like slapping a puddle of molasses.

Walnut is even slightly more so. But of course it will depend a lot on who makes it, and the slice of walnut. Not all walnut is created equal. I've played (set up/completed) quite a few walnut topped Larrivees and immediately came to the conclusion that it should not be dismissed, if you are aware of its tonal properties, and don't expect it to behave/respond like a spruce topped guitar...

[ewh2]

The UK maker De Faoite has made a few all walnut guitars.

Here is a baritone Weissenborn
http://www.defaoiteguitars.com/page52.htm

With a sound clip here
https://app.box.com/s/odb1fe3z9704w745s2s4

I myself if I was to commission a Weissenborn guitar an all walnut (English) would be my first choice ahead of koa etc.

When it comes to Walnut as a tonewood, I think cedar also makes a great soundboard. Lowden's cedar/walnut guitars are probably the most widespread walnut guitars around

[Halcyon/Tinker]

Walnut/cedar is a great combo, no doubt...

[ewalling]

Many thanks for the replies.

Wade is certainly right about the drop-dead gorgeous part - there's a Larrivee L body currently for sale that's almost worth buying for its beauty alone!

[Stonesinger48]

I was at Fuller's Guitar in Houston Saturday afternoon and had a chance to play a custom guitar they had on the wall. Solid Black Walnut GC 12-fret with advanced bracing and ES2. Wonderful tone for fingerstyle, very mellow with great sustain. I played it for 5 minutes since they were closing and it was like I was making love to that guitar, the way my fingers and picking style responded to the sound. I'll never own it since it had a $4K+ price, but it was very seductive for soft, senuous fingerstyle. First time I've ever played one of these. Have played some walnut/spruce Taylors and they weren't able to convince me they were worth the extra $1K over a mahogany guitar.

[Coffeeaddict]

Chris Ensor has built an all walnut guitar. Here's a link to a video of it.

http://ensorguitars.com/all_walnut_video.html

[good_hillbilly]

Originally Posted by ewalling

Just curious - does anyone know? Would it be similar to an all-mahogany guitar?

A friend of mine had an Alvarez-Yairi from the '70s that was all walnut. It sounded pretty much like playing a cinder block.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by good_hillbilly

A friend of mine had an Alvarez-Yairi from the '70s that was all walnut. It sounded pretty much like playing a cinder block.

Yes, but I'm sure it was a visually attractive cinder block!


whm

[stephen mills]

Hi, you ask what the sound of a guitar made of walnut might be.
As usual it's a difficult one, but, walnut is an extremely dense wood and can unfortunately be subject to cracking ( best to keep in a case where the temp will be more consent. Much will depend on the age of the wood and how it has been dried ,plus the depth of the wood and how the guitar is kept. You need to know this!
Todays woods used for ' modern guitars' are often machine dried and are therefore -- leave it there!!
Because the walnut wood is extremely dense the sound is likely to be excellent and a firm crisp sound because the wood cannot absorb a lot of the vibration created by the strings.
Years ago many woods used for top quality guitars would be 20/30 years old minimum and naturally dried naturally but today because of cash flow problems etc woods are not allowed to dry slowly so some distortion can appear.
Try to find out who made the guitar-- they will tell you-- let a Prof play it!

[stephen mills]

Hi, you ask what the sound of a guitar made of walnut might be.
As usual it's a difficult one, but, walnut is an extremely dense wood and can unfortunately be subject to cracking ( best to keep in a case where the temp will be more consent. Much will depend on the age of the wood and how it has been dried ,plus the depth of the wood and how the guitar is kept. You need to know this!
Todays woods used for ' modern guitars' are often machine dried and are therefore -- leave it there!!
Because the walnut wood is extremely dense the sound is likely to be excellent and a firm crisp sound because the wood cannot absorb a lot of the vibration created by the strings.
Years ago many woods used for top quality guitars would be 20/30 years old minimum and naturally dried naturally but today because of cash flow problems etc woods are not allowed to dry slowly so some distortion can appear.
Try to find out who made the guitar-- they will tell you-- let a Prof play it!