Origin or the outer Rib Linings/Moldings..

[Eric Hochberg]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

1) Glue joint too wide; prevents seams opening, therefore more cracks.
2) Glue joint too wide, prevents de-coupling of the vibrating plates, therefore less sound.
3) Interior dimension is less (if the outside linings were not there, the corpus could be subsequently larger within the same plate size), therefore less depth of tone.
4) Looks wrong (no other member of the violin family has them).
5) When they come loose, buzzes occur.

But I think they are a good thing to have on psychobilly players' basses...

So, would you advocate removing them from non pedigree basses? Or are they designed to work in tandem with the inside linings?

[Arnold Schnitzer]

Originally Posted by Eric Hochberg

So, would you advocate removing them from non pedigree basses? Or are they designed to work in tandem with the inside linings?

I've seen a bass or two where they were removed. The overhangs were thus kind of wide. Also, there's a cosmetic issue to deal with. I have often reduced the inside linings to a fraction of their original thickness, which helps things some.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Eric Hochberg

So, would you advocate removing them from non pedigree basses? Or are they designed to work in tandem with the inside linings?

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

I've seen a bass or two where they were removed. The overhangs were thus kind of wide. Also, there's a cosmetic issue to deal with. I have often reduced the inside linings to a fraction of their original thickness, which helps things some.

First off, removing them might present a finish touch-up challenge. If it improves the Bass, then who cares unless it is a high grade type Pedigree.

Here is one example where it could help. I saw an old German Bass one day where the Top and Back were either flush with the Ribs in places (no lip showing) or less than flush from shrinkage. If the Moldings were removed here, it would save some work shortening the Ribs at the Blocks or widening the Pates at the center joint which is also another remedy but way more costly. Still, touch-up would be a big job.

The sound might be improved as well which would easily off-set any value argument in my opinion from the alteration if it was an improvement.

My Martini shown above has wide flat outer Moldings and when it was last opened for some repairs I believe Arnold did trim the inside Linings a bit. That Bass sounds better every time I play it.

I saw one French Bass where the inner Linings were 2x as thick and 2x as wide as needed, maybe more. That is at least 4x the mass. They were reduced I believe when the Bass was restored and some improvement was noticed. Will all the other work performed, it's hard to say exactly what did what.