slab cut pine top

[Arnold Schnitzer]

+1 to Ken's comments above. I think there is a certain lush character to the sound of a slab top, due to its inherent floppiness. Unfortunately, slab-cut top plates seem to have more of a tendency to sink under the pressure of the strings. In olden times this was no big deal, as the repair shop would simply make a new top. But now, with antique bass prices so high, players inevitably want to salvage the old wood regardless of cost. So re-arching has become the standard way to deal with the problem. This said, I am personally aging some slab-cut Scottish pine which I plan to use for a future bass top. I am going to graduate it a little bit on the thick side and keep the arching fairly high, to counteract its tendency to sag. At the 2003 ISB in Richmond, Rumano Solano showed a Klotz-style 4/4 bass with a slab-cut pine top. It was so loud and deep that every time someone bowed the open A string I had to cover my ears! I believe Barrie Kolstein uses some Canadian slab-cut white pine in his basses also.