My Solano

[JoeyNaeger]

I thought start a thread on my bass. It's a 2004 Solano, based on the panormo design. A lot of Solanos have issues with them but mine seemed to turn out quite well(I also paid more for mine than many others).






It has a very colorful tone and a surprisngly focused sound considering its high rib depth. Right now, I have flexocor solos on it, but when I'm in orchestral tuning, I've been using helicore heavies recently.

[Ken Smith]

That is a beautiful looking Bass you have. Would you mind posting the usual measurements so we can get a better idea of it's size.

[Jeff Bollbach]

Beautiful, looks like one of Rumano's better efforts!

[JoeyNaeger]

Upper Bout: 20"
Center Bout: 14"
Lower Bout: 26"
Rib Depth(at lower block): 9.75"
Rib depth(at neck block): 7"
Belly length: 44"
String length: 41"

[Ken Smith]

Are the Ribs measured inside the Top and Back or including them to the outsides of each? I always measure the Ribs only as a separate piece as if unattached. The Space on the inside is what we are looking for. Dealers like Lemur that include the Top and Back are posting a misleading depth even though they state it.

For what it's worth, the two deepest sounding Basses I have played had less than 8" Ribs. One was my Dodd at 7.5" at the widest point and the other is my Cornerless Bass that just reaches 7.75" at the widest but quickly goes to 7 5/8" at the lower Bout. This in itself has proved to me that deep Ribs do not necessarily make a Bass sound deeper.

[JoeyNaeger]

Those measurements are excluding the top and the back. There are times when I wish the ribs were narrower so I could reach around it easier, but it hasn't been a huge problem so far. I'm not really convinced that rib depth has any specific effect on sound either. I imagine its a bit like round versus flat backs. They're different, but I don't think it could be said that round backs sound one way or another compared to flatbacks.