Sound post bulge?

[Mike Goodbar]

My Engelhardt saga continues.

In a futile attempt to spruce up (no pun intended) my Englehardt the other night, I was polishing it up with some lemon oil.

As I was running the cloth over the back of the bass, I could feel a distinct "prominence" at the point where the sound post meets. I couldn't really see any outward sign of bulging or even any varnish stress, but it did alarm me a little.

Is this normal? Or is my sound post too tight? Is my bass about to cave in?

I guess I should be performing "bass self-exams" more often.

[Bob Gollihur]

Not a good thing. I'd take to a qualified luthier for an evaluation. It would probably indicate either a weak point in the laminate or a soundpost that is too long, or both. If you've seen a lot of the insides of basses, you may have seen some with a half dollar size wooden coin (but don't take any wooden nickels) on the back of the bass under the sound post, to avoid further growth of the fault.