Any Walnut Fans Out There? (new comparison video)

[Organic Sounds Select Guitars]

Who likes walnut? It's a wonderful tone wood in the right hands...and these three builders really know how to get the most from it!

Here's a new video with three terrific guitars, all spruce topped and walnut bodied: (the playing starts at 2:24 if you want to skip the talking)


1. Huss and Dalton Custom 000 - "Lipton" vintage Sitka top/Claro Walnut body: https://organicsoundsguitars.com/col...ret-custom-new

2. Lowden F-21 - Sitka Spruce top/Walnut body: https://organicsoundsguitars.com/col...uce-walnut-new

3. Santa Cruz Custom OM/PW - European Spruce top/Walnut body: https://organicsoundsguitars.com/col...uce-walnut-new

[Bowie]

Nice vid. Walnut is criminally underrated. I love the clarity and subtle richness.

[PapaLobo]

I love walnut , especially Claro . I've built a guitar and bass from it

The tone is between Mahogany and Maple

[FingahPickah]

My 12 fret SS Dread (customer built by Alex Edney of Hiram, ME) is Engelmann over Black Walnut.

Tonally it's a blend of my three other dreads: Sitka/Maple, Sitka/EIR and Sitka/Mahogany.

It's rich and clear from soft fingerstyle to aggressive flatpicking and strumming.

[RJVB]

Originally Posted by Organic Sounds Select Guitars

Who likes walnut? It's a wonderful tone wood in the right hands...

I sure love walnuts (got so many around here that I even use them in the bbq...). Walnut for B&S does seem to be tricky to get to sound good. I was very attracted to it at first but in the price range that's accessible to me I've sadly heard too many examples where the sound has the boring "quality" that mahogany can give plus the coldness that some people attribute to maple.

I'll have a listen to the comparison.

[Bowie]

Originally Posted by RJVB

I was very attracted to it at first but in the price range that's accessible to me I've sadly heard too many examples where the sound has the boring "quality" that mahogany can give plus the coldness that some people attribute to maple.

If the instrument is quality in build, I find walnut lets it speak without clouding it in overtones. Regarding "boring", maybe some instruments need a rosewood to sound interesting for some players. When I got my Froggy H12 I had both a rosewood and walnut version to compare and the rosewood went back. I found the walnut to be more interesting, dynamic, and expressive for my playing. Not that the rosewood was bad, it just didn't express what my fingers were doing as well as the walnut. Sometimes less is more.