Hi: I'm new to the world of the Strat, and have several questions on basic Strat-hip terminology. One question is: What is a "Slab Board" Strat? (I apologize if I've spelled it incorrectly)...Thanks, Chris

A slab board is a rosewood fingerboard. In the late 50's and early 60's they used a thicker piece of rosewood on the neck, later they used a thinner rosewood veneer. So they thicker ones were called slab boards.

Here's a small pic for comparison.

They used slab rosewood fretboards from mid '59 to late '62, then switched to veneer rosewood fretboards until the mid '80s, then switched back to slab rosewood boards.

Other than some Custom Shop models, all the current rosewood boards are slab boards.

FYI I have seen documentable original examples of Mustangs and DuoSonic II's from as late as 1966 leaving Fullerton with slab boards along with some very early '63 Strats. However, by 1964 all of the "premium" Fender models had switched over to the lam board.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

"FYI I have seen documentable original examples of Mustangs and DuoSonic II's from as late as 1966 leaving Fullerton with slab boards along with some very early '63 Strats."

Yes, Mustangs and Duosonics switched back and forth at different times. And Jazzmasters were introduced with slab boards in '58.

I should have specified that my post was specifically about Strat fretboards (in response to the question about Strat fretboards in the opening post).

I'm sure there were '63 Strats with slabs too -- there are usually exceptions during transitions.

Speaking of exceptions, my statement that "Other than some Custom Shop models, all the current rosewood boards are slab boards" isn't entirely correct. The rosewood Eric Johnson model is a regular production model but has a veneer board.

There are always exceptions.

This is my understanding of a Slab Board: A Slab board generally means when the neck has the trussrod inserted then the fretboard placed on top. This can be either rosewood or maple. The giveaway for a slab board is that there is no so-called "skunkstripe" or walnut strip on the back of the neck.

Regular maple neck with skunk stripe:


maple neck with rosewood SlabBoard:


maple neck with maple SlabBoard:


That's how its been explained to me. If wrong I'm sure it won't take long for someone to let me know about it here.

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MIM Std Tele, MIM HSS Strat, Homemade Mongrel Tele, Blues Jr, Champ600, coupla pedals...sweeeet!

No - as the others have said a "slab board" just means that the fingerboard is flat on the bottom (and because of construction will be thicker rosewood than the "round laminate" or "round lam" fingerboards).

I think I know where you're getting confused - 1970s Fenders often had both the round lam fingerboards and had the skunk stripe on the back of the neck - so you can find round lam fingerboard Fender necks from the 1960s that don't have a skunk stripe and ones from the 70s (actually up through about 1982) that do have the skunk stripe. The round lam fingerboards can be rosewood or maple in the 1960s - it seems like Fender went back to the 1-piece neck on the maple fingerboard models in the late 1960s at least for guitars with the vintage-style truss rod. I believe the bullet truss rod models kept the round lam construction for the maple fingerboards but I could be wrong about that - I tended to only pick up rosewood board models back then.

This pic may show the difference between slab and veneer more clearly since both necks are end-on:



Note: These are Mustang necks, hence the date stamps that don't correspond to Strat (and Tele) slab production periods.

Regarding skunk stripes, before mid '59 all Strats and Teles had them. They were all 1-piece maple necks. (1-piece in that there was no separate fretboard -- there were actually three pieces of wood: the neck, the skunk stripe, and the plug that covered up the truss rod anchor hole at the headstock.)

After they switched to separate fretboards (on Strats and Teles), they didn't use skunk stripes from mid '59 to mid '69. Not on slab rosewood, veneer rosewood, or the maple cap necks. (The maple fretboards were always slab boards, even after they switched from slab RW to veneer RW, and they're generally referred to as "maple caps" to make it clear that you're talking about a fretboard that's made from a separate piece of maple and glued onto the maple neck).

When they reintroduced the 1-piece maple neck in '69, they had to reintroduce the skunk stripe at the same time -- there's no other way to install the truss rod on a 1-piece neck. You can install the truss rod from the rear on a neck with a separate RW or maple fretboard. In fact, it's just about as easy to install from the rear. And you don't need completely separate production lines if you install the rods the same way on all the necks. So after '69, all necks had skunk stripes until the mid '80s.

Then they introduced '60s reissue models and artist models and imported Fender Japan models that had top-installed truss rods and no skunk stripe. So nowadays every variation is available. (There are some '50s Fenders with maple skunk stripes and headstock plugs -- they're usually walnut but there are always exceptions.)

Veneer boards are the least common now because they waste a lot of expensive rosewood. They don't take thin flat sheets of RW and bend it (they worry that it would be prone to lft and delaminate over time). They take a slab of rosewood and carve the bottom and the top to make a thin curved piece. (I've never really understood why they switched from slab to veneer given that it was just extra work to throw away extra wood -- but veneer boards sure are pretty and cool looking to my eye.) Even most of the custom aftermarket builders don't offer veneer boards.

Fender doesn't offer many maple caps nowadays. Adding a separate fretboard adds several production steps. And there's really not much demand for them -- they switched back to 1-piece maple necks in '69 due to popular demand/dissatisfaction with maple caps. Other than Hendrix freaks and history buffs, most people are very satisfied with 1-piece maple necks.

Warmoth does maple cap necks with their version of the double-action truss rod, because their rod has to be top-loaded (they offer 1-piece necks with single-action traditional rods). And some Asian factories do maple caps because they've standardized their production line and don't do 1-piece necks.

According to Tom Wheeler in his book "The Stratocaster Chronicles", there were differential expansion issues between the maple and the rosewood with the slab boards that periodically caused frets to pop out of their slots and Leo et al decided that the thinner rosewood laminate would better resist this phenomenon.

HTH

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Here's a pic of my late '65 Strat's laminate fretboard.

And the back of its neck with no skunk stripe, just 40 plus years of wear.

I bought the guitar new in 1967 and the lam board has never had any frets pop. Leo was right.

John

Thanks Folks!

Beautiful guitar John!...same exact period as my Sonic Blue....which I'm currently trying to get back,but not getting my hopes too high.
Share some more pics of that beauty if it's okay with you.

Thanks Rebelsoul and good luck getting your Sonic Blue '65 back.

And of course I can post a few more pics.
In its original case.

Leaning on my Twin Reissue next to a 2008 Oly White American Standard.

And catching a few rays.

John