Steel Made of Walnut- - - - Your openions pleas

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 14 Mar 2003 7:59 am

I own an 8-string Deluxe from 1952 with no legs and Direct Contact pickup, made from walnut with a lacquer finish. Sounds wonderful.

Though this should be on the "Custom vs. Stringmaster" thread, I favor the playability of the SM over the earlier guitars. It's practically impossible to play above the 17th fret with the trapezoid pickup in the way.

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 14 Mar 2003 2:38 pm

Herbie
Your hands are tooooo large

I can sneak in and play right at the pickup,,and no problems. You know what they say about guys with large hands??? Next time.when no one's watching

Frank Estes · Post by **Frank Estes** » 14 Mar 2003 3:20 pm

Hmmm...Walnut??? Sounds kinda "squirrelly" to me!

Bobbe Seymour · Post by **Bobbe Seymour** » 14 Mar 2003 3:44 pm

Banjos are made from walnut? Now there's your endorsment! That's the tone I want!

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 14 Mar 2003 4:29 pm

You guys are "NUTS" WALNUTS..

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 15 Mar 2003 3:24 pm

Ricky
Chris Bauers Custom was refinished. He e mailed me jpegs and I could see the "flocking
was removed. This is common on refinished non pedal Fenders (Custom Dual Pro). I'm not certain it was indeed walnut per say, but the
color was dark as a walnut or mahogany.

I can always tell a refinish job no matter how good from an original. The value goes down on a refinish to a collector.

I'm not a collector,if I was I could have collected half of Leo's production at mfg cost

Rick Johnson · Post by **Rick Johnson** » 21 Mar 2003 11:16 am

If I were wanting to build a pedal
steel from walnut, I think I would
actually use a good hard maple and
then put a crotch or burl veneer of
walnut on the maple.
Just my opinion.

Rick

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Rick Johnson

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 21 Mar 2003 1:31 pm

Walnut, while being treasured by many many woodworkers, is not as dense as maple, especially "hardrock" maple.

This means, everthing else being equal, a P/P Emmon's would NOT have as much brilliance as that same instrument made out of walnut. (NOTE: Emmons' use mostly hardrock maple for their bodies).

While this may be desirable for some players, I do believe most would opt' for the maple bodies given a "sound" choice.

carl<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by C Dixon on 21 March 2003 at 01:34 PM.]</p></FONT>

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 21 Mar 2003 6:01 pm

Walnut, while being treasured by many many woodworkers, is not as dense as maple, especially "hardrock" maple.
This means, everthing else being equal, a P/P Emmon's would NOT have as much brilliance as that same instrument made out of walnut. (NOTE: Emmons' use mostly hardrock maple for their bodies).

While this may be desirable for some players, I do believe most would opt' for the maple bodies given a "sound" choice.

Mr.Dixon
This may be true with Emmons and others as such. Fender has an extreme amount of treble as it is. I find the walnut as you say "not as dense of wood" as maple and perhaps ash as well,but given that fact,the Fender sound is
treble personified and I find the walnut to off set the treble that Fender is known for and the choice of Walnut on early Fender guitars was discontinued for reasons other that what is stated here.

I have three Custom guitars and each has its own distinctive tone,however the walnut has a tone all by itself.

I by no means taking issue with your experience with this,it is what I have found in my years of working for Fender.
This is only my opinion.

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 21 Mar 2003 6:33 pm

No offense taken Jody. I owned a triple neck Fender custom and it had a different tone than those I played which were made out of Ash. I would say mine was "mellower".

And if a player does not like the billiance of an Emmons, a walnut body would probably be a very good choice. Certainly a prettier choice IMO

carl