"Cornerless Italian & Spanish Basses"

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

Contributes in a positive way or a negative way?

I read that a lot but I don't get what the length of the wood fibres/grains has to do with the price of eggs.

Longer fibers uninterrupted by bout curves and blocks produces a deeper sound. The new copy bass proved that as it's the deepest plush sounding bass that Arnold has produced from similar woods.

Eggs? Price depends on where you shop..

One more think on sound. This bass before restoration had a similar sound to the attributed Maggini (now attributed d'Salo) that Tom Martin has beed trying to sell for some 300 GBP but will go to auction soon at a 150-200 GBP estimated return. Also, the Seraphin attributed bass (formerly attributed to Busan) that was traded to the Minnesota Orchestra a few years back for the Maggini?/dSalo? bass also had a similar sound.

The other two basses mentioned above are Large Violin outlined basses close to or at a 4/4 measurement depending on who you ask. My Cornerless bass although a 44+" string length then, fit in a 3/4 bag and has medium depth ribs. Still, it put out sound as deep, thick and loud as the others.

So, in this case, design beats size with no loss or sound.

Unless you play these basses, it's very hard to understand what I am saying as I myself thought I understood it until I played all 3 of these basses within the same year or so. It's a live and learn kinda thing in my opinion. Until you taste it, you don't know what I am describing. The same with sound and feel. My 2 cents.