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Anybody built a cab from black walnut? How does the tone compare to pine? All I've ever tried are pine and oak.

I have a friend who cuts up black walnut trees on a home-made sawmill and cures the lumber in his own curing sheds. He has some that's been curing for years. I'm thinking about trying to score some from him.

My Les Paul is walnut and it has plenty of tone.

It will be heavy, but awesome.

Or, heavy AND awesome.

[img:640:480]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8040/7888 ... 75ec_z.jpg[/img]

Here's my 2-12 combo cab for my D-style amp made from 75 year old black walnut root stock taken out from my friends orchard.

I would use walnut for a higher powered amp or cabinet, pretty neutral and balanced tone that hold together at higher volumes, but it does make a heavy cabinet.

I like pine cabs best for 50 watt and under, and they are nice and light too. I think it takes some power to get walnut to do it's thing, where as pine opens up at low to moderate volumes and can make an amp sound fuller and bigger than it is. Either one is miles ahead of ply or especially MDF (Blech, all the weight and none of the tone or beauty)

Walnut sure looks nice though.

Pine is very warm sounding.

Walnut is warmer than maple, but not as bright.

Since walnut is so strong, you can go thinner than pine to save weight.

https://tubeamparchive.com/viewtopic.ph ... ut+speaker

One I did recently with 5/8"

John

This was figured maple I did for a guy and I kept it a little bit thin but the cab sounded amazing!!!Alnico blue and a greenback.I say keep the board on the thin side meaning you dont need 1&1/8" thick.The wood is hard.closer ti 3/4".
Should sound great,Have fun,Mikey

Make a guitar from it!

ER wrote:[img:640:480]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8040/7888 ... 75ec_z.jpg[/img]

Wow! Spectacular looking cab

Those are both beautiful looking cabs. I thought the dark Walnut would have been darker?

I think walnut is my favorite wood.ER that cab is beautiful.Claro Walnut I assume?

WE cut more Black Walnut here than pretty much anywhere in the world but locals aren't allowed to buy it.A lot of it's going to Japan And Europe.

Same with the Oak too.I can barely score any cause the flooring mills buy it all

That really is a gorgeous cab!

I asked my buddy yesterday about scoring some black walnut and having him plane it down first, and he is reluctant because he says it dulls his planer too much. I don't know if I can talk him into it or not. He builds mostly rough-hewn furniture with it, so he doesn't really plane it.

I hope to get a planer one day, but till then, I have to find lumber that is ready to go. Which limits me to mostly select pine and oak from Home Depot or Lowes. You really have to pick thru the pine to find pieces that are good enough.

boots wrote:He builds mostly rough-hewn furniture with it, so he doesn't really plane it.

Man, that's a shame... Like driving around in a primered Ferrari.
There's not much prettier to me that hand planed air dried black walnut.
Hey there's an idea, get a hand plane and a free weekend (and a free workout).
You might be able to find a local supplier or sawmill you didn't even know about who can hook you up.
Look in the phone book. Best of luck.

Dan

Highly figured walnut is not easy to hand plane.

Figure on spending a few hundred on a good plane, or spending a whole day with a stone to fix a cheaper one.

John

Some kinds of wood can be very dense or very hard or both. Your best bet is to find an "exotic wood" dealer. These are places that specialize in just about anything but oak and pine. Typically they sell by the board foot. Sometimes they manage to buy a whole tree and have enormous pieces for really big money. They also have odd lots and shorts that are often discounted. Look on line for lumber dealers or exotic wood dealers. Usually they will plane it for you and provide one straight edge -- for a price, of course and probably cheaper than buying your buddy new blades for his planer.

A quick search turned up this discussion thread:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread. ... n-Colorado

Here is a place local to me. I like the website because it has so much to look at -- a picture of just about every kind of wood. http://www.freestatetimbers.com/stock_w.html

boots wrote:That really is a gorgeous cab!

I asked my buddy yesterday about scoring some black walnut and having him plane it down first, and he is reluctant because he says it dulls his planer too much. I don't know if I can talk him into it or not. He builds mostly rough-hewn furniture with it, so he doesn't really plane it.

I hope to get a planer one day, but till then, I have to find lumber that is ready to go. Which limits me to mostly select pine and oak from Home Depot or Lowes. You really have to pick thru the pine to find pieces that are good enough.

Planing walnut is a cake walk compared to whiteoak or hickory any decent planer should handle some walnut