Been working with my father making some pot calls lately, and want to try something other than the slate over glass combo. I picked up some titanium and some copper, and wanted to see what the preferred sound board is to use under each of those. These will be 3.5" pots, and I have Bloodwood, Padauk, and Walnut right now to use as my pot material. I have 3" slate and glass on hand I can use as a soundboard, or don't mind buying/making something else. I have no experience with wood soundboards though.
Any suggestions? I also picked up a piece of 3.5" half blasted copper just out of curiousity, but have never actually seen that on a pot - so what's the "half blasted" part for?
Lastly, are there variances in slate? Lately we have made 2 identical pots, only to have one run with ease and the other seems like the striker doesn't want to run across the slate smoothly - everything else being perfectly the same even when measured with calipers. Can't for the life of me figure out why, but there seems to be variances in the "feel" of the surface of the slate.
