back plate and upper rib angle

[Adrian Levi]

Firstly happy thanksgiving to all the American folk on the site.

I have a question that maybe someone can answer ...

I am almost ready to put the back(round-back) onto my French bass after replacing the linings . Now the upper ribs have been cut back slightly , I think that this was simply part of the standard building plans and not done at a later stage in the basses life .
When I clamp the back plate on, the plate will have to bend to meet the ribs on the upper bout seeing that the back plate inside edging is ruler flat.The widest part of the gap is about 20mm.
Its easy to simply glue and clamp the plate back on BUT surely its not a good thing to have the upper back bout pulling against the neck block etc . It wont come off but Im worried about the seemingly unnecessary tension on the instrument. Any insight would be great ..