Another mystery bass?

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Sound? Some think the Violin model is tighter and the Gamba model looser and the Cornerless model even more loose. The fact is that unless you start with ONE Bass and keep chopping it down to the other shapes, we cannot judge the sound if it's not the exact same Bass.

Arnold? Your thoughts please on this. I know you have some experience based opinions. Share them if you will.

I agree that unless you can experiment on a specific instrument (impossible) you can't really know for sure. What I have noticed via my experiences with cornerless and near-cornerless basses is this: these basses seem to have a smoother sound and response, and seem to my ear a little deeper for their size. I think this has to do with the roundness of the interior cavity as well as the lack of stiff corner braces. Perhaps the stiff corner braces on a traditional design interrupt the rib structure's ability to vibrate as a unit? I don't think there is any noticeable difference between gamba and violin corners. Busettos seem counterintuitive to me, because you add massive blocks and stiffness where this is not desirable.

When I designed my "Ergonomic Contrabass" I initially wanted to build an amorphous, asymmetrical, cornerless blob of a bass. I felt I could best derive both tone and good ergonomics from that shape. But I ended up adding upper corners because cornerless basses are near-impossible to move around, and that goes against the ergonomic nature of my design. I did not want players to strain themselves or accidentally drop and destroy my work (and their livelihood). I make the upper corner blocks very unobtrusive on the inside to keep the smooth, rounded interior contours. I also am aware of how cornerless basses tend toward long rib cracks because there are no corner blocks to stop cracks from opening up like a zipper. In the long bouts of mine I applied the ancient technique of adding cross-grain linen strips to act as crack-stoppers. So far so good.

[Ken Smith]

Well, I played my Cornerless last night and moving it around is not easy. I can lift from the end of the Fingerboard thru the Strings and balance it on the center Rib curve but that's about it or pick it up by the Neck. Sound wise, it's the best that I have ever owned and equally amongst the best to anything I have ever played.

On the long free vibrating Ribs, when I tap mine they sound very deep and louder than normal. They do not have that higher pitched wood sound like when tapping a cornered Bass. It sounds as if the Ribs are more of a part of the sound of the Bass like the Top and Back is. They also vibrate quite a bit as well. On my Bass, the burled Maple Ribs seem quite thin like veneer and are completely doubled with opposite grain Spruce on the inside. This may be part of the sound as well. The Ribs being about half Maple and half Spruce in thickness. I don't think the Spruce doubling is original but I also don't know what the Ribs were like originally either. Perhaps when Jeff opens the Bass we can learn a little more about its past.