Slab vs. Quarter, wide vs. fine

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

Ken, I wrote a post. You wrote a book.

Back to the bass I am having made which is relevant to the conversation, I have the choice of choosing any wood I want. Cost is no object nor is wood source or geography. I chose matching flamed Eastern Maple Bosnia/Carpathian? (Arnold?), and some fine grained Spruce (Arnold?).

Would you mind confirming the species of the Top and Back woods being used to the new 'inspired' copy bass?

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Would you mind confirming the species of the Top and Back woods being used to the new 'inspired' copy bass?

The top is tight-grained Engelmann Spruce. The back is maple (Pseudoplatanus) that I bought from a wood dealer in Slovakia, so I assume it came from that general area.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

The top is tight-grained Engelmann Spruce. The back is maple (Pseudoplatanus) that I bought from a wood dealer in Slovakia, so I assume it came from that general area.

So Arnold, if this maple from Slovakia happens to 'check' (aka crack) then you would call it Check-Slovakia?

Off of the jokes now and for the readers, so this is the same or similar regional wood as Bosnian Maple and that sort that was considered to be the choice of maple used by Strad' then, correct?

[John Delventhal]

Arnold, you mentioned that a slap-cut top would makes the bass vibrate more in the lower frequencies, generally resulting in a strong, boomy bottom end tonally.

What about combining the two types of cuts? Keep the quarter-sawn wood in the center of the top table for the bridge, neck block, and heel block. But, have the outer sides of the table be slap-cut. Would this help create a strong instrument that could still produce those incredible lows.

I am sure this has been done somewhere. Has anyone ever seen/played a bass like this. How was it structurally, and how was the sound?

[John Delventhal]

Found one! Ken's Martini. I have played this bass, its great! As Ken puts it "It's a Canon." Ken, have you seen others like this? Were they similar at all?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by John Delventhal

Found one! Ken's Martini. I have played this bass, its great! As Ken puts it "It's a Canon." Ken, have you seen others like this? Were they similar at all?

The Martini top is a result of a small tree from what I can see. The grain is tight in the middle and fanning out to flat grain at the outer wings. The back and ribs are Oppio which is a local Italian soft maple. If the back and rib woods were the harder Bosnian type then it might be a brighter sound with the same top. Also, the deep arching of both the top and back has something to do with it as well. Also, Martini was a bass player first and then a violin-bass maker producing over 400 instruments in his lifetime with over 40 of them being basses. My Martini is the earliest known example of a bass from him made right after the 1st war. It's a real bass by a good maker. It deserves the sound it has.

I have played some very very deep sounding basses with quartered tops and backs and that had fairly hard maple in the backs and ribs. Why is that? Maybe it was just a good bass, made right, aged well, repaired well and luck was on its side.

A bass is the sound of the sum of its parts and how its designed, made and put together coupled with how it aged and how it's been played. I think!

[John Delventhal]

Slab-cut is on the left in the drawing. Quarter-sawn is on the right. Notice the four quarters in the log, hence the name quarter-sawn.

[Matthew Tucker]

Originally Posted by John Delventhal

What about combining the two types of cuts? Keep the quarter-sawn wood in the center of the top table for the bridge, neck block, and heel block. But, have the outer sides of the table be slap-cut.

This is, in fact, what happens naturally with quartersawn tops; the tightest grain is in the middle, at the seam, and the grain tends to go wider at the flanks. Also, if the board is not EXACTLY quartersawn, the grain will run almost slab-like at the flanks. I'm not shy to use wood that is not exactly quartersawn for this reason; the way i see it, the most vertical grain in the middle will strengthen the arch and resist splitting, and the slabbier wood at the flanks adds flexibility at the edges where it is needed.

[Thomas Erickson]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

the way i see it, the most vertical grain in the middle will strengthen the arch and resist splitting, and the slabbier wood at the flanks adds flexibility at the edges where it is needed.

I'm not so smart when it comes to the physics so I wonder if it's the center/top of the arch that contributes the most to stiffness, as opposed to the whole arch? Seems to me (the layman) like if the bottom of the arch is flexy, then making the top stiff isn't going to do so much good. And then the amount of top-plate area attached to the ribs/blocks inhibiting vibration, in terms of the number of grains... Like I say, I don't know...

[Arnold Schnitzer]

The recurve, an area of the vibrating plates just inside the perimeter, is carved thinner than the rest of the plate, in order to allow the plate to "uncouple" from the rib assembly and vibrate more freely. Some makers carve this area deep and wide, others make it barely noticeable. This has a noticeable affect on the depth and power of the bass, but when overdone can lead to sinkage and cracking.