Some things are born out of necessity. ToneSlabs was born out of obsession.
It started during the pandemic. Two musicians — both restless, both unable to stop thinking about tone — found each other on Instagram. Frank Solivan, multi-Grammy nominated mandolinist, singer and bandleader, and David Welch, banjo player, craftsman and fellow pick fanatic, started trading messages about what makes a great plectrum. Then they started trading materials. Boxes of experimental blanks crossing the country, tested in living rooms and on back porches, notes fired back and forth about attack, grip, warmth, clarity.
What started as two guys making picks for people became something neither of them expected: a company built on decades of performing, tinkering, and an almost unreasonable refusal to settle.
Between them, Frank and David have spent more hours than they can count with a pick in hand — on stage, in studios, and hunched over workbenches chasing the sound that lives in their heads. They've tested more materials than most players knew existed. And through all of it, one truth kept showing up: the pick is not an afterthought. It's the first point of contact between you and your instrument. It either kills your tone or it sets it free.
ToneSlabs exists because that problem deserved a real answer.
Every slab we make is built around an industry-leading proprietary compound bevel and high-end materials chosen for one reason — tonal dominance. Not marketing. Not aesthetics. Tone.
Texture is friction. Friction is noise. Noise kills tone.
That's not a tagline. That's the whole philosophy.
