What do you want in a bass ?

[Matthew Tucker]

it is interesting to me to speculate whether the doubling was added from the get go as a design feature. 2mm crossgrain doubling is a lot of work and careful joining of the edge seams. Perhaps the spruce was built onto the mould as a support first, and the thin veneer ribs bent onto that? That would make sense to me if the idea was to use a very thin veneer from the outset.

Otherwise if the doubling is not the full width of the rib, that would imply that the doubling was added after the thin ribs were bent and fixed into a mould, possibly as an afterthought.