slab cut pine top

[Flint Buchanan]

I have a general question about using slab cut pine for a bass. Are there any thoughts from luthiers on pros and cons? What kind of pine is it?

I believe that I've seen this on much older basses, there's one on TB made by Solano, and I thought that Kolsteins had one.

thanks

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Flint Buchanan

I have a general question about using slab cut pine for a bass. Are there any thoughts from luthiers on pros and cons? What kind of pine is it?

I believe that I've seen this on much older basses, there's one on TB made by Solano, and I thought that Kolsteins had one.

thanks

The Basses you mainly see with Slab Tops are the older Italian Basses. This is mostly due to cost and availability of long, wide straight grained pieces. The French, Germans, and Austro-Hungary region makeer seemed to have found the wood as it is rare to Not see a quartered Top from these schools.

Well made/designed Italian Basses from the past sound good from more that just the Top. I think it was mostly economics and maybe coined with laziness that caused this and not choice for tone or structure. A quartered Top has much greater strength than Slabbed wood does. With 100s of lbs. of pressure on the top it needs all the help it can get.

I could be wrong as I wasn't there then!

[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.

[Flint Buchanan]

Thank you very much.

as a decidely "amateur" luthier I understand the desire to use a more economical cut for the top. I know I can get good wide white pine boards, aged well, for a lot less than even an economical quartered filch of fir.

I'm sure the difference was even greater when everything had to be floated down rivers, and carried on mules backs!

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Originally Posted by Flint Buchanan

I know I can get good wide white pine boards, aged well, for a lot less than even an economical quartered filch of fir.

Would you be so kind as to share your source?

[Mike Pecanic]

I once found a 16" wide by 8/4 thick by 16 FEET long slab cut pine board in the "Molding Grade Pine" pile at my local hardwood connection...

[Ken McKay]

I have a local lumber supplier with a couple stacks of it out behind the buildings. It is properly stickered and covered. I might go have a look one day. They also have stacks of willow and redwood. Lots of good wood here in northern Michigan, but not much is cut to our specs. It actually takes a tremendous amount of work to get the wood workable and ready to make a bass.

I would have to see an individual slab to decide if I would go to the trouble of using it.