Official Luthiers Forum!

I am starting a OOO with Black Walnut B/S. I am looking for information on the final thickness for the back and sides

Thanks
Richard

This one is .110 back, .090 sides - sounds awesome!

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John Ressler

I used Walnut on a parlor guitar. The back was .085" and the sides were .080". Still working fine and is stable after 3 years.

Walnut is so easy to work and bends like butter. Lots of pores however...I used Z-Poxy under KTM-9 and was pleased with the results at the time.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Ditto what JJ said - again........ He's been beating me to the posts lately......

Here is a Black Walnut guitar that I built and man was this wood from Uncle Bob at RC Tonewoods nice to work with.

This one has .095 back and .080 sides and man what a guitar. Everyone thought it would just be okay but I will have to say walnut gets my vote now for a great guitar wood. With the Adi top (.100" thick...in most spots )it has a lot of punch much like a 50's D 18 and lots of volume. Not at all muddy but a quite focused sound. Much better than my expectations. I just wanted a curly walnut guitar with a sunbursted top so I did it. I don't think you will be dissappointed and walnut is a pretty sustainable wood...at least for now...and some beautiful stiff out there too.

Best of luck.

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Just did my first with Blk. Walnut and WRC top. .115 back .085 side. It has great volume and pretty decent lows.
For this newbie it was great to work with. I cut 6 sides thinking some would break because I had never bent before. First one did fine. I soaked it for 10 min.. The second side did better then the first. I soaked it for 45 min. So I got extra sides for another. (Gave a set to a buddy.)
I second the pore fill. I skipped that and wished I hadn't.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

I've also just built a jumbo with black walnut, and a cedar top. That combination is really good, I think. My numbers are in line with the others here but I did thin my sides quite a bit for the cutaway.
I actually used walnut for as much as I could in this guitar. the neck is walnut, as well as the bridge, the blocks and the linings! Can you tell I like the stuff?

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

That is a great looking guitar. What did you use for the binding? How was it making the neck out of walnut. That stuff is hard as rock.

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Mark Ewing
Columbus Ohio
"Trees are an important and precious thing. We should build good things with them. Building good guitars with heart are the best use for them." K. Yairi.

I don't know anything about building with it but I got a black walnut tree in the back yard with walnuts that are getting pretty big.

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Jeremy Douglas

Walnut might be my favorite wood to build with, especially with a cedar top.
You might want to think about a 5 piece walnut neck to match.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I have my first black walnut guitar on the bench right now. Sides are 0.075-0.08 and the back is ~0.090. So far its been really nice to work with.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

I've always read and stuck to the rule of 2mm sides and 2.5mm back, walnut was what I used on my first and it turned out great.

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Jake Archer
~~Make a joyful noise unto the Lord~~

Mark, walnut isn't so hard, it's softer than hard maple and works like a dream. It makes a great neck and is easy to carve. I used koa binding on that guitar.
Steve's guitar looks like it's Claro Walnut, while mine is the plainer Black Walnut. The Claro is beautiful but it doesn't grow nearby! But I did buy myself a nice set from Larry Davis at the GAL convention.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com