Why Slab Basses? Can a tort guard save them?

[2cooltoolz]

Ok, track with me. You call up Sadowsky or Mike Lull. You ask him to make you the ultimate '51 replica bass. He asks, would you like body contours with that, no one will will be able to tell the difference from the audience? You say...

Emphasis added. To me, that is the crux of the argument. A "'51 replica" is a slab. Period. A similar looking bass, a "50ish" bass, is a different thing. I agree with you more than not. I wanted a "50ish", "teleish" looking bass, and built a totally modern "vintage-ish" looking parts bass to fit my personal style/taste. I actually love it for how incongruous (wrong) it is... It ain't no replica, though:

 

[engedi1]

Emphasis added. To me, that is the crux of the argument. A "'51 replica" is a slab. Period. A similar looking bass, a "50ish" bass, is a different thing. I agree with you more than not. I wanted a "50ish", "teleish" looking bass, and built a totally modern "vintage-ish" looking parts bass to fit my personal style/taste. I actually love it for how incongruous (wrong) it is... It ain't no replica, though:

View attachment 783507

That's a sweet bass. It just needs a tort guard for maximum ton I get the replica thing. If it were me, and it might be someday, I would get a 51 replica with at least the arm contour. Not a true replica, who really cares?

 

[z11111]

I think they look really nice but functionality-wise, not for me. Never liked the sound of the pickup and likewise feel. I had a Rick 4001 copy for a while and the slab body of that thing killed my wrist

 

[friendlybass]

Slabba dabba doo ya'll

 

[Korladis]

Ok. I am 100% mystified why anyone would ever, under any circumstance, get a modern custom bass like Nash or Bluesman in the form of a slab precision. Can't we all agree that the slab precision was simply an earlier, and lamer design that was perfected when the contoured precision models came out later in the decade? Now, I fully understand the awesomeness of owning an original '52 P bass, but to pay a luthier big buck to make a reproduction of a bass that will give you carpal tunnel and tennis elbow and is uncomfortable sitting or standing makes no sense to me.
Of course along with the tonal improvements, as well as automatic boost in funkability and mojo, that accompany installing a tort guard on your bass, perhaps the tort also makes the slab bass less likely to give you repetitive stress injury?

No, we cannot agree.

And if it's giving you carpal tunnel, maybe it's your technique that's the problem.

 

[Korladis]

If you're like me, you've probably never been bothered by the edges of any bass guitar. I'm just as comfortable on a telecaster as I am with a Stratocaster. Makes no difference to me in terms of the basic feel of the instrument (though we all agree they are monumentally different).

I never really understood people who complain about marks, and sometimes even cuts in their arms because the edges are too 'sharp'. The first thing that pops into my head when I hear those people talk is : get a better strap and stop pushing down with your wrist to stop the neck dive! If your bass is hanging perfectly in balance, there should be no need to ever press down hard enough to hurt your wrist or cause carpal tunnel etc.

-Ron

I always wonder about that, too. How hard someone must be digging their arm into the side of the bass to cause pain if it is a slab/has binding. People have this complaint about Rickenbacker 4003s, and I've never understood it. Guitarists have been playing telecasters and les pauls for years without complaint about the "sharp" edges.

I guess the way I play just doesn't put a lot of pressure on my wrist/arm, compared to how a lot of people play.

Ok, track with me. You call up Sadowsky or Mike Lull. You ask him to make you the ultimate '51 replica bass. He asks, would you like body contours with that, no one will will be able to tell the difference from the audience? You say...

Nope, no contours. Though I'd prefer an Entwistle style slab P (though with reversed split coil) to a 51 style.

But why? Just to be true to the original? You can't say that it is more comfortable this way. I get being true to the original, its a total valid thing to do. But I had a '51 Lull bass I would get the contours.

Because yeah, I can say it's more comfortable. The way I play, honestly it is. Not everyone is you. Every set of hands has a slightly different technique. My Rickenbacker is no less comfortable to play than my Peavey.

You suffer from the common TB ailment of thinking everyone is like you. I never even thought about the slab being uncomfortable. I have a '68 Tele bass that is a slab too. I don't even notice when i play it. I play a Ric 4003 and don't have issue with that either. I don't notice my contoured basses being more comfortable.

Exactly.

You know, with Ricks I don't notice much of a difference. Perhaps it is the smaller body. With Tele-style basses I totally do. I have shorter arms. If you are tall, and thin it may not bother you and more power to ya!

I have a beer belly, am not tall, and don't have long arms.

The contours on Fender-style instruments make no sense to me. The "arm" contour isn't close to where my arm rides over the body. It certainly has no bearing on carpal tunnel or tennis elbow, products of poor technique regardless of the sanding on a part of your instrument. The "belly" contour actually makes the bass sit LESS comfortably, and doesn't match the wear patterns that develop on my instruments. I see the contours as being the lame, imperfect design experiment.

Same. The "arm" contour is not where my arm actually rests, so it gives me no benefit whatsoever.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I'm with you. It would be awesome to have one from the 50 of course, but at the end an instrument is a tool that should feel comfortable in your hands. Leo got it right after adding the contours

 

[veebass]

I never even thought about the slab being uncomfortable. I have a '68 Tele bass that is a slab too. I don't even notice when i play it. I play a Ric 4003 and don't have issue with that either. I don't notice my contoured basses being more comfortable.

Pretty much my experience with my slabs (69 & 73 Telecaster Basses, 4003 and a 77 Greco TBird). I really don't find them noticeably less comfortable than my contoured basses. I even have a couple of Fenders with deeper vintage contours (56 P and an 82 Fullerton 57 RI P) and I don't notice much difference by way of the bodies being more comfortable. The necks are a different story, given they are all different.
So, if I were getting a custom built 51, I wouldn't ask for it to be contoured.
Some great looking basses in this thread btw.

 

[bassdude51]

Ok. I am 100% mystified why anyone would ever, under any circumstance, get a modern custom bass like Nash or Bluesman in the form of a slab precision.

Ok. I am 100% mystified why anyone would ever, under any circumstance, get a modern custom pickup truck like a Ford, Chevy, GMC, Dodge Ram, Toyota when they could own and drive a really nice modern sedan.

Well, that's how I feel when I play a slab body. Like the difference between driving a car vs a truck. Sure, the car is more comfortable, easier to drive, handles better, has fancy "do-dads" and little warning lights on the dash and such....................and it is boring.

A slab body makes me feel....................ahhh, manly!

I don't need the tummy cut 'cause I ain't go no gut or "man boobs". And I don't need the foreman cut 'cause, I just don't need it.

"Slab is rad!"

 

[ThuzzleFump]

Love the look, never played one. Pretty sure tort can save anything.

 

[Nev375]

Sorry, I got to have my contours. I play with my bass rather high because
it's more ergonomic for my hands. I'm afraid a sharp edge might slice into my
wrist and I'd die bleeding all over it and then the blood would dry and look
like fake tort. I'll be damned if I have anything resembling fake tort!

Plus playing up high just looks weirder. I'm a weird guy.

But I fully support you slab guys. I like the looks of some of these awful things.

 

[johnson79]

So let me get this straight. The OP doesn't like slab basses because they're uncomfortable and "older and lamer", but other people like slab basses. This is a real eye opening topic. Wow.

 

[Ric5]

Ok. I am 100% mystified why anyone would ever, under any circumstance, get a modern custom bass like Nash or Bluesman in the form of a slab precision. Can't we all agree that the slab precision was simply an earlier, and lamer design that was perfected when the contoured precision models came out later in the decade? Now, I fully understand the awesomeness of owning an original '52 P bass, but to pay a luthier big buck to make a reproduction of a bass that will give you carpal tunnel and tennis elbow and is uncomfortable sitting or standing makes no sense to me.
Of course along with the tonal improvements, as well as automatic boost in funkability and mojo, that accompany installing a tort guard on your bass, perhaps the tort also makes the slab bass less likely to give you repetitive stress injury?

Entwistle was convinced that the slab basses sounded better than the contoured ones ...

 

[Ric5]

I like slab basses with rounded edges ...

 

[engedi1]

No, we cannot agree.

And if it's giving you carpal tunnel, maybe it's your technique that's the problem.

Just for the record, I don't have carpal tunnel or any other wrist/nerve/hand/arm issues. I was being somewhat hyperbolic using those terms. I have however played a great deal of acoustic guitar and I do know that if your technique gets sloppy and you let your arm rest on the bout too much with the sharp angles it will tire out your wrist and I don't see why slab bass would be different (for me)

 

[engedi1]

I like slab basses with rounded edges ...

Awesome bass collection Ric. I am glad I posted this just to get see all the bass eye-candy. They sure do look pretty!

 

[Ric5]

Awesome bass collection Ric. I am glad I posted this just to get see all the bass eye-candy. They sure do look pretty!

At any given time I will have 10 to 20 basses ... Several of those pictured there have been sold and replaced with others ...

 

[yodedude2]

Ok. I am 100% mystified why anyone would ever, under any circumstance, get a modern custom bass like Nash or Bluesman in the form of a slab precision. Can't we all agree that the slab precision was simply an earlier, and lamer design that was perfected when the contoured precision models came out later in the decade?

NO

 

[JimmyM]

Nobody in an audience can see the sharp edges and lack of smooth contours, so even if there was supposed to be a "coolness" factor to it, the whole concept of it being about the "looks" are specious.

The audience is immaterial. Anyone who uses the audience as a measuring stick when picking out gear has defeated themselves already.

 

[M.R. Ogle]

Just my two cents.

I have an early Precision. A "transition" 1956 with all the vintage look, but DEEP contours.

Best of both.

I'll show myself to the door now....