I hope this bass will find its way to the ISB Convention in Rochester in 2013. I'd love to see it. I have not closely followed the chatter on cornerless basses, but there seems to be a prevailing theory that they sound better. Of course, I ask if the sound is better because they are cornerless, because they are a few hundred years old, because they were made by guys who knew what they were doing, or because time has weeded out all the clunkers?
I can tell you that modern acoustical research has shown that there's a lot of bending going on in the center bout region of bowed string instruments. My feeling is that the presence of corner blocks acts to stiffen the center, but without any good evidence as to whether this is a good or bad thing. There's a good bit of evidence that the violin evolved from the viheula, a small Spanish guitar, which makes me wonder why we don't see more cornerless instruments. The bass, on the other hand, is perhaps a different breed. Anyway, get cracking, Arnold, and lobby Ken to let us see this puppy when it's done.
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