Official Luthiers Forum!

know of anyone? Thanks

Ron M.

I have seen this here for a couple days and no one has responded ...

Very few would ever use walnut as a FB .. its far too soft, and with heavy use would simply wear out - it likely wont hold frets all that well either, at least without gluing them in .. I am sure you have likely seen rosewood boards with divots that happen over time, players with longer fingernails that grind into the board from playing C G and D too much !!! Some EI rosewood is softer than others, and thin frets dont help either.

Bridge - not the greatest choice for sound transfer, soft, too high a damping factor - htas why rosewoods and ebonys work better .. find a piece of EI rosewood or braz that has the colour you are looking for. You wont be disappointed in the tone.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Hi Tony,
Thanks for your response. i was going to use the walnut on a weissenborn style guitar that I'm building. I was going to use maple purfling fret inlays on the fingerboard.

However, you make a good point about the Walnut bridge not being good for sound transfer, I never gave that any thought.

Sound is what's most important, so i think i'll go with rosewood, which was my second choice.

Thank you.

Ron M.

Ah ... lap steel type .. heck my 65 national fingerboard is mother of toilet seat

as for a claro FB blank then, call uncle Bob at RC ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

If I recall correctly, Al Carruth has used walnut for bridges. It might work just fine on your guitar - it might even work great. Depending on your bridge design, you could also possibly laminate walnut on top of something else for visual effect. And don't forget that the bridge material, though significant, is only one part of a very complex equation.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Thanks Todd.

Ron M.