Thinline Walnut body & neck?

Caisa

Junior Member
Messages
126
Hi, what kind of tone can I expect from a walnut Thinline Telecaster, with standart Telecaster pickups, walnut neck with ebony fretboard?
I am looking for good clean sounds and great bluesy tones.

Or do you recommend any other neck woods?

I have seen some walnut thinlines with rosewood neck, but I think it might sound a little bit too dark more a great jazz tone than blues? Maybe pau ferro is an alternative? I would really prefer dark brownish wood like pau ferro, walnut or rosewood but do not know what really fits to the walnut thinline body to get a great tone (not too warm an jazzy and not to bright).
 
If your looking for no finish on the neck look elsewhere.  Walnut requires a finish.  I have no personal experience with walnut but I've heard it's got a pretty good tone.  Should a little on the bright side but not to harsh, and of course there's always treble controls on the amp and a tone knob.
 
You surely have seen my walnut/rosewood beauty then. The guitar itself is naturally very balanced sounding when played unplugged. The high-end is very bright, well defined, but it has lots of depth. The low end is also very clear and bright.

Really, I think the walnut/rosewood combo will be able to do anything your pickup choice lets it do. My Duncan 59 in the neck goes from the perfect jazz tone to a ballsy, growling blues tone, to a great warm crunch rhythm. The Barden bridge pickup is like a bright, twangy Tele on steroids. I'm going to swap my volume pot for a 500k to bring more brightness to the neck and let the tone knob do the mellowing. I'll put a 500k resistor in parallel with the bridge to keep its effective load the same.

Of course, so many people have done the walnut/rosewood thing that you might be tempted to do something just to be different. I'd imagine goncalo would be good in both tone and looks. I'm just not sure how well padouk or pau ferro would look with a Walnut body, although they might sound good.

Hmmm... how about bocote?
 
Thanks!

@ callaway, what do you say, if you have to compare your walnut/rosewood combo with a standart alder/maple combo? Where is the main difference in tone? In theory it seems to me the walnut/rosewood must sound way darker but maybe its just theory?

Can you make another picture of your walnut thinline at daylight? On your pics it seems to me the walnut is much darer and more chocolate brownish than on other pictures I have seen from wanut bodies.

EDIT:

BTW is your neck all indian rosewood?

 
As far as comparing to a "normal" Tele, check my response on my original thread. I answered you there  :)

Unplugged, my Thinline isn't darker... it's just fuller. The high is still very bright and clear, but fuller. It's like there's more complex harmonics and resonances going on.

The top of my guitar is very chocolate brown. It's quite a bit darker than the back, which is more of a rich caramel brown. I'll try to get more pictures, but there's only a limited time of day where the natural sunlight is good in our house, and I happen to be at work during those times. So I'll see about it this weekend. Outside pics are out of the question right now, since we have 7 inches of snow on the ground!

Yes, neck is all Indian Rosewood. Well, I ordered "Rosewood" and they don't specify whether it will be Palisander or Indian, but it's most likely going to be Indian. I can tell mine is definitely Indian by the color of it. It seems like they must have thought about it at least a bit and tried to pick a piece for the neck that would complement the Walnut. I mean, of course they make no guarantees, but it looks to me like they thought about it.
 
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