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I haven't posted pictures of builds in a long time, but I just buffed out a couple of guitars over the weekend, and one has a butternut soundboard, which is different enough that I decided to post a picture. I had mentioned this guitar in a few threads some time ago, and a few were curious to hear how it turns out. Still not done yet, but should get the neck fretted this week and strings on in a week or two. The body is black walnut with wenge bindings. The other guitar is curly mango with coco bindings.

Ken

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Beautifull !

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Looking great Ken

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Butternut? Nice Ken, where did you find some butternut? I've been looking for some. My sawyer say he been cutting timber in Indiana and might run it to some.

Hutch

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Thanks Gents! Hutch, the butternut came from Brian at Artisan Lumber. You are right. Finding a piece q/s and big enough for a guitar is nearly impossible, but Brian has some.

Ken

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ken, any chance you could post some photos of how you attach the neck? haven't seen that method yet.
very cool!

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Beautiful! I want one The butternut color really complements the black walnut perfectly.

How's the box tap tone compare to the spruce one?

Post some sound clips when you get strings on it

Great looking work as usual Ken! Your finish work is great!

Trev

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Patch, my approach is something simple I came up with a number of years ago after building my first guitar and has been only slightly refined over the years. I glued the f/b extension down on that guitar then later wondered why have a bolt on neck if it cannot be removed easily. Granted a neck reset can still be done with the f/b glued to the top, but I wanted to remove the whole neck. My approach was to add a mahogany block above the UTB then make a tab to go on the f/b extension. I hand route the pocket in the top to accept the tab. Originally I used T nuts in the tab, but now use bronze threaded inserts. The f/b extension thus has two small bolts holding it down to prevent buzzing, and the whole neck comes off in two or three minutes. Simple and effective enough, but more importantly, owners seem to really like the setup.



Dennis, I voiced the butternut top after voicing the Lutz. I have done enough with spruce that I have a decent feel for it, and having that top dialed in gave me a reference for the butternut. The tap tone of the two boxes is extremely similar, though the butternut box is slightly heavier with a slightly deeper tap tone. I have found that walnut has a bit more color to the overtones than mango. Will be very interesting to compare the two when done. I'll post more pictures of the completed guitar and see if I can get a sound file together as well. It'll be a couple of weeks, though.

Thanks Trev, been meaning to follow up with you on your neck CNC toot, but I just haven't had time to play with my CNC machine yet. That will be my summer entertainment!

Ken

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The butternut build is fascinating to me. It's relatively plentiful (in the wild) in my area. I can't say that I have ever seen it in a lumber yard. Same genus as black walnut, which grows in virtually every pasture, fence row and quite a few back yards in my county. For me, this raises an interesting point of discussion: I have always wondered if we could build all-hardwood guitars (for example, butternut or black walnut) topped guitars. Mt thought was this simple: If koa works on all surfaces of a uke or a guitar, why wouldn't walnut do the same? I posed the question here four or five years ago. The respondents cautioned me against the damping quality of the walnuts. I am far from being a pro, so I didn't argue. But I will sure be eager to see how your butternut guitar turns out. Sometimes these choice are just so subjective. If a thing is good enough for us, it doesn't have to meet any else's needs or desires. I will most certainly be eager to know how your butternut guitar turns out. I bet you will love it, and I bet others will, too.

Patrick

thanks!

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