"Cornerless Italian & Spanish Basses"

[Matthew Tucker]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Longer fibers uninterrupted by bout curves and blocks produces a deeper sound.

Thanks for your 2c and I respect your experience with many fine basses, but I still don't see how one can make a generalisation like that. Or perhaps I'm not getting an important detail?

By that simple logic, the wider the FFs are apart, the deeper the sound, because there are more long fibres running the length of the bass. Simple as that. But it's not that simple is it? Your cornerless has ffs quite close together. So WHERE are the long fibres? At the edges? Nope, because they are "cut" by the arching at the C bouts outside the FFs. In the centre? Perhaps, up to the edges of the FFs and along the flat part of the long arch before it drops at each end. But then, a bass with more widely spaced ffs would be deeper. But you know that is not always the case, is it?

Or maybe are you talking about RIB fibres? A cornerless has way long interrupted rib fibres, yes. But i don't think this is what you mean.

Or maybe the fibres above the lower eye of the ffs? Yes, with wider centre bout there is more uninterrupted wood above the outside of the FFs, relatively speaking, but the fibres themselves are probably no longer as they have been cut by the arch carving.

The only way to get longer fibres is to BEND the plates a la Bill Fulton. But we don't see that very often.

So, I think that when it comes to doubles basses, one generalises at one's peril!