Fender Slabs, and what made them tick.

[Alanko]

When I was still on Talkbass, *sniff sniff*, I spoke to John Kallas a couple of times about the 1966 Slab Precisions. He was of the opinion that there was absolutely nothing special about them in terms of circuitry. This flies in the face of John Entwistle's claims, but makes a lot of sense. the Slab I've seen gut shots of has a black fiber bobbin and a grey fiber bobbin on the underside of each pickup half, so clearly they were thrown together from existing parts. I've seen the maple cap on the neck cited as a contributing factor as well, but again I find that hard to believe.

My personal stance is that the players, the strings and the amps changed just as the Slabs appeared. The two major players were Ace Kefford and John Entwistle, and both used Rotosound rounds and cranked the treble. Could they have simply done the exact same thing with stock Precisions with the body contours? I initially hypothesized that Fender, struck with the challenge of making a 'Telecaster bass', used 1 M pots off the Jazzmaster production line to get more top end out of the pickups, but apparently this isn't the case either. Rather, Kefford and Entwistle were making new sonic territory by gunning the treble on tube amps with limited headroom, and the Slabs just happened to be the bass driving this ensemble. Both players were given a wider degree of musical freedom in their respective bands as well. It all comes together nicely...

To bolster my theory, take The Who's gig from the Isle of Wight, 1970. I've seen this cited as an example of how a stock Precision just lacked the bite and grind inherent in the Slab circuitry. Yet, we know that John was running a simple bi-amp setup. I wager that they only mic'd up the 'bass' half of his rig. There are times when Roger Daltrey stands close to John's rig and you can hear the more typical Leeds tone bleeding into the vocal mics, which again backs up my argument. I would need to find an audience bootleg of that gig to reinforce my view, but I wager that any P bass with John's low action and zero relief setup would get the same tone through that rig. The idea of overwound pickups and 'inherent distortion' is a myth!

I don't see Fender winding hotter pickups for a small run of corner-cut designed basses for the limey market. It doesn't make sense to reward us with such a bespoke product if it involves holding up the production line.

All of this is just my opinion, and I would like to hear what everyone else makes of the Slabs.

[4stringer77]

All I can say is they either dig into your thigh or gut or forearm more. Otherwise the difference in circuitry is making mountains out of mole hills. They still sound like Fender basses either way. Probably would put a mudbucker in one if I had one. Welcome to the last bass outpost btw

[Highlander]

A slab is easier to produce, obviously... less work, not more... as for the electrics... all conjecture...

Or find the buyer of the "Frank" or the white "Slab" and say "pretty pleas, can I take a look...?" might work... I live near PT and keep wanting to try and pay a visit to see the white PC ExplorerBird he has in his studio, just to take notes...

but... imho... give any bass to a decent, but distinctive, player and they will produce their "distinctive" sound... probably...

[Dave W]

You have to be old to remember that Fenders (and Gibsons) were a lot more hit and miss back then than now. And I'm old enough. Could be the players, could be the way their setups, or could have been that these slabs just happened to be real winners. But I don't believe Fender did anything special to make them that way.

I prefer slab bodies.

[Pilgrim]

I don't know the history of the instruments cited, but we all know that musicians tend to keep the instruments they like and turn over the ones they don't.  It doesn't stretch my credulity to believe that musicians like the Ox found basses they liked and then played them by preference.

Combine that with the fact that once a musician has an instrument configured with the strings and setup they prefer, and they will sound like themselves. The fingers and technique are a big part of their sound.

Put those together, and I'm in Dave's camp.

[Chris P.]

I know a guy who owns an original Slab and he's about to buy his second.... ....from a guy who has six ones. I believe also the/an ex Entwistle one. But I don't know this for sure. This guy I know also has a CS Slab. I'll ask him to join in on this discussion.

Having said that, two things:

- I hope Fender releases an affordable MIM Slab once.
- I agree on the sound thing. Entwistle has a certain sound on stage, and then it's in the lap of the gods. Which mic or mics, which fromt of house sound board, which outboard gear at the sound board which one is mixed in louder. Then it has to be mixed and again which mics are mixed in louder, which compressions are or aren't used. There's too much going in between what goes out of JAEs amps and what you hear on YouTube through crappy 20 dollar headphones.
- So I also think it was JAE and not the bass who/which made the sound.

[slinkp]

I agree about the Isle of Wight film, the bass sound on that one is crap, and I've heard the same thing where John's treble gets audible whenever Roger is near the amp. It's a really comical audio effect on the bass sound when he twirls the mic.

[senmen]

Guys, Chris,
Ok here I am.
Haven't Been in this Forum for quite some time now. 
Well I do own, as Chris mentioned, a Custom Shop Masterbuilt Slab made
by Todd Krause and an Original 66 yet.
Another 66 will be added soon. 
As for the FCS I am currently selling it as I want to
go for Vintage ones only now. 
Well As for the "normal" Slabs the secret lies in the neck
mainly and here the separate maple fingerboard on the Maple
neck is the main factor. This causes that the Bass throws out massive
highes and gets very aggressive growly in Sound.
The wiring and pickups are stock. 
My Slab is one of 4 existing ones with a rosewood board and the only
one with a Stock Black pickguard....
Many greetings
Oliver
The Hybrid Hunter

[senmen]

Guys,
As for the wiring on JE's No1 Slab, the Three knob, he had each coil
Of the pickup wired seperately to Different Outputs to run two Amps. 
He was very unhappy with that and tried several times to have it rewired
to stock wiring but it die Not work.  I guess that this was the reason aswell
why the Bass Sounded crap.  After the Different tries to rewire it
he bought another Slab which led to Frankenstein. 
I will have a Chance to Play the Three knob ex JE Slab very soon....

Many greetings
Oliver
The Hybrid Hunter

[Alanko]

I agree about the Isle of Wight film, the bass sound on that one is crap, and I've heard the same thing where John's treble gets audible whenever Roger is near the amp. It's a really comical audio effect on the bass sound when he twirls the mic.

Cheaper than a Leslie. Great to hear Moon's cymbals flying past as well.

Swish swish swish.

[Rob]

You have to be old to remember that Fenders (and Gibsons) were a lot more hit and miss back then than now. And I'm old enough. Could be the players, could be the way their setups, or could have been that these slabs just happened to be real winners. But I don't believe Fender did anything special to make them that way.

I prefer slab bodies.

I agree.
You had to play 20 guitars to find one with the magic just as you do now.
The nice thing about the 60's was that there were basses and guitars everywhere.

[Alanko]

As for the wiring on JE's No1 Slab, the Three knob, he had each coil
Of the pickup wired seperately to Different Outputs to run two Amps. 
He was very unhappy with that and tried several times to have it rewired
to stock wiring but it die Not work.  I guess that this was the reason aswell
why the Bass Sounded crap.  After the Different tries to rewire it
he bought another Slab which led to Frankenstein. 
I will have a Chance to Play the Three knob ex JE Slab very soon....

Hi Oliver,

I'm sure I was informed at one point that the 3-knob slab had some sort of primitive active circuitry installed, and was then converted to stereo. Something like a boost or something? Not sure where I read that so ignore/avoid if necessary!

John was such a busy player that I'm not sure the stereo trick would have served him well. The other issue is that the tone control would have had to have been allocated to one side of the stereo circuit. The uneven tone of sending the D-G strings to a bright amp and the E-A strings to a bassy amp would probably not work with John's long runs and cross-string leaps. if the roadie also buggered up the grounding in the circuitry then you would have had all sorts of problems.

I've converted a few basses to work in stereo off of twin 1/4'' jacks before today. A lot of work and a lot of faff, though you do get a nice tone with the two pickups working separately and not loading each other.

[Highlander]

I went down that road years back by using XLR's for the stereo outputs...

[godofthunder]

 The slab we hear on Live at Leeds as I understand it was "Frankenstein" rebuilt out of three or more smashed Slab Precisions. I read years ago in a interview, Guitar Player magazine I think ( got that around here somewhere) John thought the special sound of the bass came from the tone circuitry...............possible I suppose, I read in the interview John assembled the bass himself, soldering iron in hand. I have no idea if this is correct. So I wonder was one pickup from the carcase basses just a bit hotter? Or maybe a capacitor of a different value? Maybe it was a odd pairing of potentiometers? I do think the theory is that equipment was changing so fast and other outside influences like cabs, mics and sound companies may be part of the equation.

[senmen]

Scott,
No, although John Said Different in Different Interviews he only smashed one Slab.  The First one, the Three knob, is preserved and is owned by my Friend. I Will Play that extensively Next Month.  After JE had no luck in Having the Three knob restored to Original Condition he Went to Slab No 2.  This one was partially smashed during a Gig and Made it's way to Frankenstein. 
As for Electronics and Pickups, Nothing Different here.  All Stock. The Main fact responsible for the sound is the Maple Capped Maple neck!

Oliver
The Hybrid Hunter