# New to me - Bastogne Walnut



## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

I was over on another forum earlier and saw a picture that somebody posted of a new Parker Fly guitar that was custom made. He mentioned that it was made from Bastogne Walnut. I'd never heard of this wood before so I did a little checking on this website: http://guitarbench.com/index.php/2009/05/27/bastogne-walnut-tonewood-database/ and here are some of the things they mention about this type of wood:

"Bastogne Walnut can vary greatly in color, texture, grain and density. However, it is generally the densest of all walnuts and often displays a green hue and broken fiddleback figure. The most common color contrast is with the colors of Claro and the dark streaks of English Walnut. As a tonewood, it is comparable to Claro walnut in how it works and produces a striking guitar.

Bob Taylor once described walnut as 'Rosewood on steroids'. I believe he was referring to Bastogne Walnut! George Lowden says; 'Bastogne walnut is harder than claro or English walnut as a generalisation. It usually has less colour variations but does have very nice figure often.'

Bastogne Walnut tonally rivals the best Indian Rosewood in terms of overtones but it retains a stronger mid range and a fundamental. What I found attractive about these guitars is the projection, which is within the realms of a mahogany guitar.

George Lowden again: 'Because of the hardness it gives a very defined clear sound, great for most playing styes except perhaps flat picking where you might prefer to use a rosewood for that ‘thicker’ lower mid range. I love walnut as a tonewood, particularly good with redwood tops and sitka in mid sized, and cedar in large guitars. In small guitars it works well with cedar also.'"

Here's a link to the picture that was posted of the custom made Parker Fly.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s217/cy2989/desktopbastogne.jpg


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Nice.... dang .. I still have some walnut


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## geezer (Apr 30, 2008)

I never heard of it before either ,but I have big flitch of veneer that looks just like the guitar wood in the link.


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