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This puppy is gonna need to come down. The DBH is 4.5ft which if my maths are right puts the radius at 8.5in. After removing the bark and cambium(?) that's I think big enough for at least some parlor guitars yeah? It's a walnut and has a nice long straight section up to the first branch so I'm thinking it's useful.

I'm thinking of cutting 40in drums, splitting them then cutting off maybe 1.5in boards on the resaw and letting them air dry for a few years before use.

Anyone with experience I'd love to hear from.

The pith of the tree is frequently a bit irregular and cracky, so you may be challenged getting 7.5” to 8” plates. But you have nothing to lose but your time in proceeding as you plan. You can always make 3 or 4 piece backs, if necessary. Make sure you seal the ends as quickly as you can. You will find a use for that wood.

I'm assuming the 4.5' is the circumference breast high rather than diameter breast high. Sawing it up as you mention should give you some wood suitable for parlor guitars. For smaller instruments (parlor guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, dulcimers) quartering the "drums" and then quarter sawing (flipping the "quarter" to the other face each cut, and then leaving a thicker bit at the end (for a neck blank?) rather than slicing up narrower, progressively more off quarter boards, might yield more vertical grain pieces.
Splitting into wedges may be the easiest way to process the wood, yield the best quality wood for instruments, and give the greatest amount of waste.
Sending the butt log to the saw mill and plain sawing some nice long boards, kiln drying them so the wood becomes a uniform bland gray as the heart wood color bleeds into the sap would give you some nice general purpose lumber for building furniture and other useful stuff.
How many parlor guitars do you want to build from unfigured black walnut and do you also build other smaller instruments? What resources do you have available to process the tree (local sawmills that will saw a "yard" tree or someone with a portable bandsaw mill?).
Some nice trees go for firewood because that is the easiest way to remove them.
I think what you have suggested in your post may be the most practical and least troublesome way to go.

I have a niche small clientele that likes 'locally grown' guitars. A few years back I had access to a 350 year old maple tree that fell on the property of a local museum that was a plantation. Most of it is unfigured maple but when QS it looks quite nice actually and that doesn't really matter. In fact I have at least 5 sets of plain walnut in my inventory now. But it's the local kick that gets it going. I also have local spruce and pine to work with as well.

And thanks to Bob Gramann I even have some Virginia Persimmons to work with too.

I have a resaw plenty big enough and also access to an Alaska mill but I think I'd rather QS the wood rather then just plain saw it.

We could let this tree grow another year before it has to come down too but I'm not sure how much girth that would give it.

Thanks for the replies.

For decently quartersawn 8.5" planks, you need a diameter of at least 22"-24" without the bark. You'd still be left with some sapwood.

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For parlor guitars you only need pieces 6 to 7 inches wide, so you could get some nice sets from that tree.

Yeah or as mentioned 3 or even 4 piece backs which I am not opposed to. My little parlor guitar is 12.5in wide though so that would probably work. Sapwood is ok with me too.

24” minimum diameter is what I use. Split the log in half (12”), discard 2” for sapwood (10”) and 2” for heartwood and you would yield an 8” wide quarter sawn board.

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But I loves me my sapwood in walnut! I seek it out.

Why a 40” drum though? Most back billets are 22”, so you wouldn’t get 2 from it, and most side billets are 32-34, so there’d be some wastage unless you’re planning to account for end checks?

Would there be a downside to milling it immediately into sets and stickering?

For a parlor guitar a 20 inch long "back" might be O.K. Parlor guitar bodies can be as short as 17 inches, and generally not more than 19 inches long. And then you could get a 20 inch back, and a terz guitar or tenor uke, or dulcimer backs and sides out of a 40 inch long board.
I knew some one who had a green log cut into 1/2 inch thick lumber to maximize the surface footage and to avoid having to resaw it later. It warped and cupped as it dried and most of it went for kindling. It wasn't quarter sawed which may have been part of the problem, but I think leaving it a thicker is better, and lumber is usually restacked a few times as it dries, so it makes for less pieces to handle.

I was thinking 40 inches because of possible end checking. I suppose that might be overkill but most sides I have are 34in long to start so that only leaves 3 inches on both sides.

It's my understanding that milling right away is done with topwood like spruce but not hardwoods. Hard woods that I have dried in 2in planks can warp and sort of bubble up a bit when nice and dry then a few passes through a planer and you are good to go.