Solano's Duplication of Bradetich Bass!

[Bassman402086]

Does anyone know anything about Solano's efforts to duplicate Mr. Jeff Bradetich's bass?!!! I got a little excited when I heard about that.
Anyone

[BMason]

He can't duplicate the sound. That bass' tone is massive.

6/22/2007:
I might have been wrong...

[brooklynbassed]

Originally Posted by BMason

He can't duplicate the sound. That bass' tone is massive.

Why don't you give him a chance? You might be surprised. Isn't it nice to be SURPRISED?

[BMason]

You can compare this to the Brian Bromberg "Wood Bass" project. It will look a little like a 260 year-old master Italian bass, but it won't sound anything like a 260 year-old master Italian bass.

[Andy Allen]

Wow...I guess for some people the glass is always half empty, while for others it's half full.



Andy

[JoeyNaeger]

Being a new bass, I doubt it'll be able to replicate the massive tone of Bradetich's bass. That being said, it'll probably sound pretty good and since its being built for Bradetich, Solano will probably be build it to his highest standards.

[BMason]

Just spent the week with Bradetich and Solano at the Bradetich Masterclasses. The copy of the bass was very suprising -- even better than the original bass in some aspects. Mr. Solano built the bass out of 100 year old wood that he acquired through the death of another luthier. Needless to say, the bass sounds incredible. The projection is the same, if not better than Bradetich's Guadagnini. He was so impressed that he's going to record a CD on the bass and mention Rumano in the disc info. Solano's basses are going to to be huge in a few years; in fact, I will be probably be buying one.

[M Ramsey]

Originally Posted by brooklynbassed

Why don't you give him a chance? You might be surprised. Isn't it nice to be SURPRISED?

To quote Gomer Pyle;

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

I spent a couple of days at a festival with Andy Moritz. He's a classically trained bassist from the Houston area, who happens to play in a progressive bluegrass band called Cadillac Sky. He also does other classical and jazz gigs.

Andy owns a killer carved German bass that's about 25 years old. One of the best carved basses I've ever had my hands on. He spoke of how the Solano basses stood up against this beast of a bass.

He owns about 2-3 Solano basses and can't do anything but sing praises of Solano's work!

Ain't surprises nice?

[flint]

Can someone forward me the contact info for Mr. Solano? I've looked for it but haven't found it in the past postings.

Also-if anyone would pm me the general cost levels of his basses I would appreciate it.

[tompage]

flint, he has a website: www.solanobasses.com or you can email him at: rumano@solanobasses.com

[Silversorcerer]

Originally Posted by Andy Allen

Wow...I guess for some people the glass is always half empty, while for others it's half full.



Andy

And for others it doesn't matter as long as there is still something in the bottle.

It makes sense to me that old wood newly carved is still old wood. Is there some magic about old basses? It seems to defy logic and reason. Is there something old about old basses? Yes;- and that would be the wood. I know of a maker, Martin Brunkalla who is building an instrument (unfortunately not a double bass) from wood that is about 50,000 years old that was preserved in a peat bog in Antarctica. It will be interesting to see if that instrument sounds old or new when finished.

[Matthew Tucker]

from his website:

"Top - Spruce cut with vertical lines on the front, or the Old Italian Tradition type- cut on the slab, showing annual growth rings for added stability."

Cut on the slab, showing annual growth rings for extra stability?

What's that all about??

[tompage]

Matt, when vertical grain is used, the grain runs the entire length of the bass (neck-endpin). If there is an impact anywhere on the top, it has the potential to (and probably will) run along the grain, making a 1" crack into something much more serious. "Cut on the slab" has the grain running neither vertically nor horizontally (it's more diagonal). Imagine having a set rectangular prism. How do you get the longest piece? You cut along the diagonal, from one bottom side to the top side of the other. That is, essentially, slab cut. The grain has no definite direction (it does travel vertically, but at an angle, slightly offset, just a few degrees off from the vertical). Because of this, the crack will not be able to travel as far, if at all, compared to vertical grain. It is much more durable than vertical grain, but some people prefer the look of vertical grain, etc etc. It's just a matter of personal opinion.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Silversorcerer

...It makes sense to me that old wood newly carved is still old wood. Is there some magic about old basses? It seems to defy logic and reason. Is there something old about old basses? Yes;- and that would be the wood....

Surely, there are those who would argue that what else is "old" about an old bass is the time that the instrument has had to "open up" as a result of the vibrations produced by playing it and whatever physical changes the wood has undergone as a direct result. I am making no claims either way as to the validity of such notions.

[Silversorcerer]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

from his website:

"Top - Spruce cut with vertical lines on the front, or the Old Italian Tradition type- cut on the slab, showing annual growth rings for added stability."

Cut on the slab, showing annual growth rings for extra stability?

What's that all about??

Pardon, mon ami, whose website is this from? I've always heard quarter sawn tops were more resistant to sinking and stronger and slab cut more prone to problems. I'm not saying that is correct, just what I heard. Also, it is easier to get large boards that are slab cut. The tree has to have a big diameter to get bass size quarter sawn lumber. That's why so many with perfectly veritcal grain have wings or tops made from several pieces instead of just two.

I think far too much emphasis is given to the issue of close grain and quarter sawn tops. Many of the great old Italian basses and others had slab cut tops with big knots clearly visible right in the middle of the lower bouts. It makes one wonder if the obsession with close grain and figured grain as well as quarter sawn tops has anything to do with a good sounding double bass instrument. It would seem that it has to do more with the visual appeal of the instrument.

It is confusing that while we forgive the old Italian instruments that are made this way, we generalize that contemporary basses with woods that are straight grained and even quarter sawn are of "lesser quality" wood than the figured stuff.
So what's that all about???

[Matthew Tucker]

I do know the difference between slab cut and quartersawn.

What I was wondering about was the statement "Cut on the slab, showing annual growth rings for extra stability"

pedantically, its not just slab-cut that "shows" the growth rings; they're just showing differently.

But "extra stability"??? I just thought it was an odd statement to make. Does he simply mean extra impact resistance, as Tom said, or resistance to shrinkage? Does he mean the top is less prone to sinking? Everything I've ever read until now indicates that the reason quartersawn tops are generally preferred is because of the strength and stability of that orientation. And that slab-cut has less strength, more flexibility/floppiness than quartersawn.

(a propos, sorcier d'argent, ce texte venait du site web de Solano Rumano)

[Silversorcerer]

Nous sommes sur la meme page, monsieur Tucker.

The statement Rumano makes is confusing. (see, I have 3, if you count them in waltz time, little hooks with dots for hair not to mention a purple face!) It's almost as if he uses vertical as opposed to horizontal. Maybe its a mistake and he means vertical lines on the edge? Extra stability? It sounds like, what's that kind of statement? B.S. That's what I'm looking for. Bull. I've seen lots of slab tops on old basses in photos and a few in the flesh, but it would seem to be that he talks about one grain and describes the qualities of the other. Well, he's a bass builder not a copy editor I suppose. Perhaps he explained it to a copy editor and something was lost in the translation. Probably a cool bass whichever way the grain runs.

[Ken McKay]

Vertical grain orientation may or may not be better depending on how the plate is graduated and arched. It is possible to take two very different pieces of wood and carve them so they exhibit similar eigenmodes (resonanaces), at least lower ones. So, to speak of wood in terms of better, and worse, resonant or whatever, is useless.

In a factory or large workshop situation the use of a homogenous wood like vertical grain spruce allows similar plate graduations on different instruments to sound similar. Generally this is true with a good deal of variabliity. On the other hand, slab cut wood is really variable in terms of strength, flexibility, damping characteristics and a cookie cutter approach would be a disaster.

As far as stablility, slab cut wood is unpredictable.

[arnoldschnitzer]

Perfectly slab-cut wood has about the same beam strength as quarter-sawn. But the slab-cut wood will shrink and expand (across its width) about twice as much as the quartered. Most old italian basses with slab tops were built from small trees. The top wood ranges from slab to rift to quarter-sawn in the same piece. The wood is generally a bit mushy and variable, hence the uneven sinkage we encounter. The plus is that weakness or mushiness in a bass top usually relates to massive bottom tonally. A bass built with slab or modified-slab wood should be made with generous overhangs and have its top glued on weakly. That will help it survive the large seasonal changes in the top's width.

[bassist14]

thank you arnold

thats some very useful information.
posts like yours make me feel that my investment in a supporting membership is a real good deal!