Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Pope
Speculation: if the ribs were narrowed, it would seem to me more likely that a luthier would narrow them from the back; otherwise it would take a lot of re-engineering of the neck block instead of just a trim of the button side of the heel, which unless there were grave structural problems with the "top" side of the ribs would not be a cost effective modification to the bass, or any bass. And if it were trimmed from the rear, then the peg, assuming centered originally, would be farther back than forward.
I vote for it "always having been that way."
Please correct me if my reasoning is not sound (pun intended).
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I have no idea. In fact, when I got the bass it was such a joy to play sitting OR standing I never gave it an ounce of thought until Arnold mentioned it. I thought it was just that way! Also, it's not the first old Bass I'd acquired where the endpin was not exactly centered.
These are very old basses, made with 3 gut strings originally when playing bass music was much simpler. Mozart was new music then so go figure. What a particular repairman did later on while modifying some old bass to modern standards, who knows what alterations these guys did.
Remember, the violin in Strads time had a pitched maple fingerboard, not a pitched back neck with overstand. Many old Basses have the necks still just barely sticking out from the body and pitched back for the string height. Back then, who really cared about the 'fixed' peg endpin hole?