"Cornerless Italian & Spanish Basses"

[Martin Sheridan]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

Hi Ken,

I think you do nothing good by putting braces in the ribs of your cornerless bass. The 90 degree attachment will likely lead to rib cracks, just like at the corners of old basses where the rib shrinks and the block stays put. If you are concerned about a small rib crack developing into a "zipper" and traveling around the whole body, you can run some linen strips across the ribs about every 8-10" or so. Put them in with weak hide glue and run them up onto the linings, otherwise you'll cause a new stress point where the linen ends. My experience is that these strips remain a tiny bit flexible, and while they stop small cracks from spreading, they don't cause new ones. I have been using this technique in all my handmade basses. Old Martin guitars have similar strips I've been told.

Good input, Arnold. Stradivari, according to Saconni, used linen strips in his cellos. He said in the cellos where they had not been removed those cellos still had no rib cracks.
(Edit) I've been thinking about this, and although I agree with your logic, the addition of braces isn't that different from having corner blocks, is it? I made a Benedetto style archtop guitar a few years ago and although I didn't put them in that guitar Benedetto recommended them along with the linings. It might help add some stability? I do like the idea of the linen strips. I used them in my basses and cellos for awhile, but haven't done so lately.