Walnut It Is!

 

 I just finished two Minnie M's with bars made of Oregon Black Walnut, which is a variety of Claro Walnut. Sounds great! So I am moving full steam ahead with this source of Walnut as the replacement for padauk in my higher range tone bars.

• This walnut all comes from the Willamette Valley in Oregon, USA.
• It is all "urban salvage" - not the result of any sort of clearcutting or overcutting.
• It actually costs me a little more than African padauk, in part because the persons cutting and milling the wood are getting American wages. Walnut is  considered by woodworkers to be a premium wood and is priced accordingly.
• The sound is every bit as strong as padauk, but not as ringy. Definitely more "ethnic" or "folk" in its sound and definitely not as "European" in the way that orchestral marimbas are. That's fine with me, given the music most folks play on these instruments.

Welcome to Walnut

Due to a current shortage of padauk I am switching to walnut as the tone wood for my soprano instruments. Whatever the long term availability of padauk may be, my goal is to replace tone woods harvested from the shrinking rain forests with tone wood harvested domestically.

Does walnut sound as good as good ol' padauk? Let me share with you this sound recording of Patricia Bourne's school marimba group performing on marimbas outfitted with, firstly, padauk bars and, secondly, walnut bars. Have a listen and tell me what you think. Also available, with more readable text, at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCyJyLZoX1o

Of course sound recordings never quite capture the live experience but I would be very interested to learn what reaction registers in that space between your two finely attuned ears.

FYI this tune is a choral accompaniment that Patty Bourne arranged for her elementary school kids.

Any impressions of Walnut vs. Padauk?

Walnut Lowrider

Just finished 4 Walnut Lowriders, destined for a school in Brush Prairie, WA.

Walnut may indeed be my replacement for Padauk, we'll see. Recordings of these Walnut Lowriders forthcoming!