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I was building a Lutz/Walnut guitar and was trying a few new to me construction methods. Along the way there was a question on the sound of an all walnut guitar. I had some flat sawn walnut already cut which I originally used to learn how to resaw. I did not think of using it for a guitar but since I had it and a neck that was an orphan I thought I had little to loose but my time building an all walnut body.

Did not take a lot of pictures as most of the methods I was using was covered in my Lutz/Walnut build. Joined the back and top, thinned out the top to about 0.085" as thicker than that seemed too stiff for me. The neck was some packing crate wood from Singapore, looks a little like mahogany but more dense, the fretboard is Jatoba.



Braced up the top and back, bent the sides on a hot pipe using a heat gun.



Glued the top and sides together with hide glue. Back ready to put on the body.



A little deeper body than the one the neck came off of. Fixed that up.



The Jatoba fretboard looks great.



Did not turn out too bad. Actually sounds pretty good to my ears.

I am very curious how this guitar sounds. Cudos to you for a great experiment and using available woods!

Wow. Jatoba fret board? That stuff is crazy hard. I bought some of it ignorantly thinking it was a cheap substitute for mahogany. Built a classical it with it. Jatoba eats tools. And sanding? Fagedaboudit!

Nice looking guitar! The fretboard does look very good. Did you put finish on it, or just micro polish it? I've got a bunch of left over jatoba flooring.....hmmm.

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Nice. Post a sound clip please. I'm interested in hearing parlors and walnut tops; this is both in one! What are the body dimensions?

I've made a couple jatoba fretboard and bridges, I love the stuff. I plane my radius on the fretboard after the slots are cut and jatoba is a dream to plane even across all those kerfs. It's hard enough and a pretty color. What more do you want for a fretboard?

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Good for you for using sustainable woods!
I would think a walnut top would sound similar to mahogany but maybe a tad richer. Interesting...

Love these kind of posts. I'm always anxious to see how things look with some finish. My ear is not good, but like the others, I'm really curious to know how it sounds. How thick did you make your top?

Nice looking guitar. I love projects that use available or free woods. (my favorite uke is made from a walnut board someone gave to me)
How does it sound?

Cool project! I've been interested in alternative woods for quite a while now. Always nice to see what others are doing in that realm. Thanks for sharing!

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George :-)

Nice! I'm big fan of walnut...

That looks great! What did you use for brace wood?

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Is the top flat sawn as well? It appears so, the bracing looks a bit on the lite side. Any concerns with that. I love walnut and use it quite a bit, never on the top however. Mabe I will now!

Wow, was not expecting this kind of response. Thanks to you all. Where to start?

Was looking for some different wood to use for rosettes, stopped in at a flooring place and the only thing that looked interesting was the Jatoba. Thought it is pretty, too bad it was not wider, the owner said hang on and pulls out a part box of wider stuff. Not sure if I wanted to spend the kind of money the stuff goes for, he says $20 for the box. I said sold!



Can get two fretboards given the thickness, while I was set up I made a few extras.



Killed a router bit but well worth it.



The neck wood.



Cut the tongue and groove sections off and had just enough with and thickness for the neck.



Made a few extras. You never know when you want to make another guitar.



No idea at this point what it will look like, not too friendly as far as shaping goes. Getting there though.



Filled in the grain.



Only now was it when I thought I made the right decision.





The body the neck was meant to go on. Way too neck heavy being a small body and dense neck wood.



Don't know how many images I can put in a thread, to be safe I'll start another one.

Where was I? Body dimensions are lower bout 13 1/2", upper bout 9 7/8", length 17 1/2", a shade over 3 1/4" at the heel, 4 1/8" at the tail end. The fretboard has wipe on poly on it as is the rest of the guitar. I'll go gloss once I get better at building. Satin is more tolerant of mistakes. Top is about 0.085" and flat sawn, the braces are 1/4", might be light for a regular guitar but with a 24" scale length I thought I could get away with it. Also it is a small body. The brace wood is stuff I picked up at Home Depot.





A little concerned about posting a Youtube vid for the guitar. My brother put this together while trying out some software. Was not meant for general consumption, sure he will make a better one. But since you all wanted to hear how it sounds. I took the guitar to work and a few people gave it a try. I am sort of learning how to play, hardly practice since I got into building. Made a deal with myself I am going to put building aside once I finish the next guitar. Same size as this one but with a Lutz top.





Back to the sound. One of the guys took it home and recorded me a sample. Just a handheld recorder and an off the cuff musical selection. He is more of a go through a Marshall type. Actually does give a good representation of the sound. If the link disappears I'll blame my brother. Did a preview and not getting the Youtube link right, oh well just a click away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCFipdw98_U

Oh no...Printer2...looks like you got the disease pretty bad. Love how you wanted a guitar and found a way. Thanks for posting. Fun to see your obvious enthusiasm. I do think that you're gonna have many more guitars in your future.

Pete

Sounds nice and the music selection in the first had of the. Keep took me back to 1989, I felt like I was about to be tardy for typing class.

I'm in the process of shape g the braces on a walnut and WRC roped guitar close to that size (the body is a little longer. My braces look to be In the same ballpark. My top is thicker 0.11 but that os to be expected with cedar vs. walnut. I'm really digging this body size so far, now I want to make a hardwood top version even more.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Just for the heck of it, no sense starting another thread.Here is the other walnut with the binding done on the top. Actually had the body half done when I got excited about the all walnut concept and put this one on hold. The smaller one is a cherry/lutz with a poplar neck. Lower bout around 11" and 15.5" body length, 21.5" scale length. As good as the all walnut sounds like to me I really want to hear the lutz top. The cherry is another unknown, not sure how stiff I should make the top or back, will know what I should have done after it is done. Might get lucky though.

That sure sounds fine to me, I like parlors!

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Decided to work on my 19" cherry guitar. Although now it has a scale length of 21.5" rather than 19". It was inspired by Yamaha's guitalele. I just could not decide if I wanted it nylon or steel strings. Finally decided on steel. I routed the truss rod slot in the poplar neck. Now that I changed the neck length for 21.5" I did not have a truss rod that would fit. So I took a longer one and welded it up at the right length then cut it down.



I ended up deciding to go with oak binding just for the heck of it. Had them 0.100" thick and after bending them with a heat blanket on the form they all had cracks at the upper bout. Might be too thick for them and the wood was nothing special and had a good amount of runout. Decided to try soaking them for a day in fabric softener and water for a day and then bending them. The stuff works, or was it the water? I think the softener helps, touching them up on a hot pipe you can feel the wood is willing to bend easier.



With the oak binding I went with an oak wedge and head plate. Now I have to have a go at doing the slots for the open tuners. First time using them, hope I get it right.

Lovely guitars! In these days of huge guitars, anything smaller than a classical is often called a "parlor." Whether they are parlor size or not, the guitars in this thread are 0 size guitars--a bit larger than what were formerly called parlor guitars, yet very comfortable and handy to play, with a great sound. From a 1898 Martin catalog, starting with the smallest guitars: “The sizes are recommended as follows: No. 2 ½ for young beginners; Number 2 for ladies or wherever a clear, even tone of moderate loudness is wanted; Number 1, being strong and balanced, for general purposes; No. 0, for concert playing and club use; No. 00 for exceptional power. All these have stood the test of time; they have the proper proportions and are, each in its place, the best models known. No. 0 is the most favored one, combining with great brilliancy a clearness even to the last note which is the wonder and delight of all."

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

The walnuts are 13" and 13.5" lower bout so calling them 0's fits. The cherry's lower bout is 11.25", so maybe a 5 or a 3. At under 33" I could strap it to my bike carrier and head out to the park on a nice sunny day.

I slotted the headstock and the fretboard. Also did the saddle slot and roughed out the bridge. Seems I offset the neck about 1/8" at the body, can notice the fretboard offset at the soundhole. Going to have to let things percolate in the back of my head for a while before I decide how to proceed. It's looking kind of cute.

Slotted and glued the fretboard on, now how do you shape the neck with a volute on a narrow headstock? Oh well, I'll figure it out when I get there.



Don't know why I did not notice the glare from the window earlier. No problem with that a few hours latter.



It is pretty close to the final shape, a little more sanding and some side markers should do it. Some peg holes in the bridge and it might even be finishing time.

The nut is going to be fairly wide at 1 13/16". My other little guitar has a regular sized nut and with the 22" scale length it gets crowded trying to finger an A. I took a look at the dread I have and measured up 21.5" (the scale of this one) from the bridge and then measured the width of the neck. So the neck should feel a little like a full sized guitar capo'd up the neck. At least that is the theory.

Finished sanding the neck and body and while filling in the grain of the fretboard I got carried away and did the oak head plates also. Then I thought I have the wedge which is oak also. Do I do it also, what about the oak binding? How bad can it be? Since this guitar is for me I had little to loose.



OK, I was a little apprehensive. Well at least it did not turn out horrible.



So now do I start with the finish or do I wait and get the other walnut/lutz one to the same point? Might be worth seeing if I can spray the two rather than putting the finish on by hand.

To try something different I have a can hardwood floor finish and thought to use it on this guitar. Brushed it on and it seems it would prefer horizontal work. Sanded it and decided to try wiping it on even though that is not how it was to be used. Not too bad but will take a while getting a thick enough finish.

Decided to pull out that spray gun I bought, warm enough out to try it. Some trial and error, sand and spray again, and again, eventually good enough for the girls I go out with. Just need to glue the bridge on and drill some pin holes then do the frets.



Well, was not meant to be. Did my first fretboard removal.



Don't know how I managed it but the scale length is too long. By an inch. It is a good thing I have perseverance. Time to print out scale length, the right one.