Then again, according to Patch, walnut has a sound all its own.

See: Wanna see what the factory can do with a really nice piece of Walnut? 

I'd say, give it a shot. It's fun to experiment with guitar sounds.

Hi Nancy,

Sorry I got you into such a convoluted discussion. I'm sure it was partly based on my walnut Pacemaker that Dan linked to. Everything people have been saying about walnut, both positive and negative, is true. It IS dense and heavy and can certainly mute the volume and tone when used as a top.

I picked my piece in person from the stash of a local luthier who uses it mostly as backs for archtop guitars. (MAN would I love to be able to afford one of those! They are gorgeous!) With his assistance, I worked our way through one set after another. I was looking at the figuring of course, but just as important to me was the tap tone of each set. And most of them sounded...well...dense and heavy, with a decided kind of "THUNK" when tapped. But wood is astoundingly variable and occasionally a set would have a pleasant kind of "DING" sound to it. We set these to the side to compare them later.

We never got around to comparing them though. Eventually, we tapped a set that had a crystal clear, very obvious "RING" tap tone that sustained for quite a bit. It was night-and-day different from every set up to that point in a very good way! The luthier said if we had tapped that one first we would have stopped right then. It really was a remarkable difference from every other set we had picked up. Add to that that the figuring was gorgeous, and it only took a moment to decide that set was going to New Hartford.

However, it is worth mentioning that even that set sounds nothing like spruce, which is what most people are used to. My guitar is not loud for a 12-string. My 80's Custom Balladeer 12'er not only sounds different (more robust I would say), but is noticeably louder no doubt. The walnut's tone is lovely, very chime-like, and works perfectly well acoustically for small groups and solo playing at home, but for playing out (even in my small church choir for example), amplification is definitley necessary.

One last thing, because I knew how stiff walnut would be and how much more tension would be required to get that top vibrating, I only ever considered using it as a top for a twelve-string guitar; hoping that the extra strings would give it that much more oomph! Personally, I don't think I would use it for a 6-string, but you never know if you find the right piece of wood.

In the end, it obviously worked out as well as it possibly could for me. The point of all of this is that you have to be very careful when picking non-traditional woods for a top. Spruce has been the go-to top for generations for a reason. And Cedar has a similar reputation.

If you haven't had a pro check the tone of that wood, move ahead cautiously. Maybe even find a local luthier with a good rep and mine him for advice. And I might suggest, if the walnut does not work out, you might consider a nice piece of sinker redwood. Several members here have sourced some excellent tops from a website whose name currently escapes me, including the piece that now tops my FD-14-X. None of us have been disappointed, with the sound or the looks!

Good luck!

Well hopefully not a panelmaster but something that re-creates the excitment of the original shiny bowl with a touch of modern ...

Happy July Fourth, Y'all.