Quarter slawn vs. slab sawn

[Kevin Briggs]

Hi, folks.

I realize there have been some topics on this in the past. I've read through them and still have questions regarding the tone.

I understand that tonal differences between a one-piece back and two-piece back are minimal, if differences exist at all. What I want to know is if there are tonal differences bewteen a slab-sawn one piece back and a quarter-sawn one piece back. Any thoughts regarding this?

I'm just gathering information. I have had some conversations about it already, and am just searching for more opinions.

Thanks,

[swinginmandolins]

Kevin,
I just recently had this discussion with Steve Holst. His opinion is:

In my view the difference
between slab cut and quartered wood is all about stiffness. Tops have
to be quartered for proper resonance. For mandolin backs you have a
choice between slab or quartered and both are fine choices. On
mandolins the flexibility of the back is a large determiner of the low
end response of the instrument. Same with archtop guitars. The more
flexible the back is the deeper and more full the low end of the
instrument. By its nature slab cut wood flexes more easily than
quartered. For people that like a deep, woody sound slab cut is very
nice. For guys that like bright and crisp quartered is nice. There
isn't a huge difference between the two and the way you carve it can
make more of an impact on the sound. ie. you can carve a quartered
back thin or leave a slab back thick to counter their inherent
tendencies. When selecting woods I like to get a feel for the
player's desires and choose woods that are going to get me there more
easily. A bluegrasser would probably be happiest with a quartered
back. For a player that is looking for a more broad range of tone a
slab back might be a better choice.

We decided for what I'm wanting tone wise that a slab back will be a good choice.
Hope this helps some.

[Kevin Briggs]

That's great, Terry! That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.