Guitar and Pear-Shaped

[Matthew Tucker]

What you say may be true. I guess I think there are relatively so few cornerless basses compared with regular basses that it's hard to make generalisations really meaningful, as there are still so many other variables. But we can try.

If cornerless basses sound so fine, generally, why then are they so outnumbered by regular ones?

(... and I was actually asking the other Ken about his rib depth on the build photo)

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Matthew Tucker

What you say may be true. I guess I think there are relatively so few cornerless basses compared with regular basses that it's hard to make generalisations really meaningful, as there are still so many other variables. But we can try.

If cornerless basses sound so fine, generally, why then are they so outnumbered by regular ones?

(... and I was actually asking the other Ken about his rib depth on the build photo)

Yes, I know it was the other Ken but thought it valuable to once again throw in my two cents regardless..lol

Why so few? Well, tradition for one I would guess and pride maybe as well on the other hand. Guitar makers were not thought of as highly as Violin makers so that might be a mental block on their Cornerless beasts. Also, ever try lifting one around the stage or moving a few feet over from the player next to you? Where the heck do you grab the thing? I have a hard time moving it around but the sound makes up for it. Also, I can't lean it on the chair next to me like I do my other Basses. Should I glue a Block to the outside of the Ribs like a Horizontal 'bumper' to lift, carry and lean the Bass? This might be something to help with this problem I think as well as some Bumpers on the Upper and Lower Bouts to lay it down.

Cornerless Viol/Violin Family instruments have been made in Italy for hundreds of years but for some reason, they never change tradition. Even the Chanot's and others in France and England (19th century) made some cornerless Violins as well as others elsewhere. The Spaniards adopting the Guitar Form as their main style of making Basses after the Spanish Guitar itself took hold world wide. They are forgetting one thing here in Spain though! It's an Italian thing Bass-wise and not Spanish no matter how well 'borrowed' or adapted..

[Matthew Tucker]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Should I glue a Block to the outside of the Ribs like a Horizontal 'bumper' to lift, carry and lean the Bass? This might be something to help with this problem I think as well as some Bumpers on the Upper and Lower Bouts to lay it down.

maybe velcro can be called upon, again, to perform modern miracles ...

[Brian Gencarelli]

Ken McKay,

Just looked at some of your progress pics... looking good! I am getting inspired to give it a whirl myself... I will finally have a big project out of the workshop soon. (Dining room set restoration for my wife... about 8 months work so far.)

Once I have some room, I may be sending you a PM.

Carve on,
Brian

[Ken McKay]

Thanks Brian, I have been working on it here and there. I have the back planed to thickness now and the top arching pretty much refined the way I want it. I have the purfling and am ready to cut the grooves. The corpus is off the false back platform now because I glued on a "false top" to hold the rib shape while I glue on the top when it is ready. I will show some pics of that soon.

I will be glad to help anyway I can.

[David Powell]

I've just caught up on your progress and it is looking really fantastic to me. I'd give the current rib depth a whirl. After all, taking off is easier than putting it back on, and with the long taper like that it is plausible that it will have the right sound. I don't know if there is a formula for rib depth. This fellow is building different shaped cornerless basses: http://www.allbasse.com/

His design, which is sort of a rounded Savart shape, has a rather radical rib taper from bottom to top. I don't know what the measurements are, but I think it looked similar to what you currently have going.

I really like the way your barrel arching shaped up. It's pretty obvious the you have a good instinct as a builder.

[Arnold Schnitzer]

David, I tried to enter the site shown above and my anti-virus program reported an intrusion alert, some type of worm/virus.