Blockless..

[Sam Sherry]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

If you look in the old turn-of-the-20th-century Sears catalogs you will see blockless basses for sale, and clearly marked "Made in Germany". . . . I think the "Tyrol" attribution is an American thing.

You're making sense (as usual).

I've said elsewhere that "Tyrolean" likely began as a businessman's effort to provide a waft of vaguely-Italian atmosphere to a non-Italian instrument.