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I was given a couple of boards of what I was told is Walnut. They're pretty heavy and are a deep chocolate brown.

How about bridges and necks? They are not 1/4 sawn so I guess I could cut them into strips, flip em and laminate with maple or mahogany for necks. Would this be stong enough? Not too heavy? Other thoughts?

What about bridges? Again flat sawn.

Thnx guys

Don't have any first-hand experience with this, but I'll be using Walnut necks with my Walnut bodies. Plenty of people have used it successfully. I've also seen a few bridges made of it, but not many.

Walnut has been used for banjo necks for years. Don't know about guitar necks.

BobC made me a beautiful neck blank out of walnut. He's the man...Bob says it's good...that's good enough for me!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

I've built about a dozen walnut necked guitars...most with walnut bodies. It works fine. They were all lamimanted with a center strip of maple, koa, mahogany or one of the rosewoods. There have been no problems with any of them. IF you have concerns, add some CF rods for rigidity, but I don't think you will need them unless you make some real skinny Rock & Roll neck profile.

It is fine for both. Usually it's a bit heavier than mahogany, so it might not be the first choice for necks on light guitars. As for bridges, it is not as strong as rosewood, so make the saddle slot a bit farther back to avoing splitting out. In fact, you can make the whole bridge a little bigger to getr more gluing surface. It will still probably weigh less than a rosewood bridge, and almost certainly less than an ebony one.

I know it's no recommmendation, but Ovation uses walnut for bridges. Alan Carruth38476.7641898148

[QUOTE=Alan Carruth] It is fine for both. Usually it's a bit heavier than mahogany, so it might not be the first choice for necks on light guitars. As for bridges, it is not as strong as rosewood, so make the saddle slot a bit farther back to avoing splitting out. In fact, you can make the whole bridge a little bigger to getr more gluing surface. It will still probably weigh less than a rosewood bridge, and almost certainly less than an ebony one.

I know it's no recommmendation, but Ovation uses walnut for bridges. [/QUOTE]

Maybe somebody can verify this--but I've been told that Ovation has some sort of system whereby they impregnate their walnut with a hardening resin that stiffens up the walnut quite a bit. Any truth to that?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

[/QUOTE]

Maybe somebody can verify this--but I've been told that Ovation has some sort of system whereby they impregnate their walnut with a hardening resin that stiffens up the walnut quite a bit. Any truth to that?

[/QUOTE]

It wouldn't suprise me considering all the other glues and resins they use in those things.

I remember seeing one in a guitar shop with a tag on it that said "Doubles as a pool float!"

-Joe

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice