Hybrid vs. Laminate

[Roonhd]

Greetings, having owned an EUB for about 4 years playing folk, bluegrass, Americana, I am looking at buying a full upright bass. I am considering either a NS laminate or a hybrid but concerned about the carved top of a hybrid suffering damage in outdoors weather conditions. Not that I plan to play a hybrid in extreme hot/humid weather conditions but I do reside in sunny but humid South Carolina. Most of my bass compadres play laminates but I am curious about these hybrids realizing that they do sound better. Any thoughts and/or suggestions from other players with this type of experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks RM

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I recently played my hybrid LaScala on two *extremely* hot and humid outdoor gigs (I didn't know they were gonna be outdoors until i got there) and she was solid as a rock, as always - even tuningwise. Louisville is about as humid as anyplace I've been, and we're usually in the 90's in the summer. I draw the line at playing in the sun, but other than that I've done fine so far.

[Marcus Johnson]

Same here. Same bass. I don't go out in the Maui sun with it, but other than that, no probs. Great bass.