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Double Bass Exterior Rib Lining

GirouxJB

GirouxJB

Guest
Jun 18, 2013
42
14
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Manager - Warwick USA
#1
Hi all,

My upright is in the shop right now getting some major repairs. Recently I had the endblock collapse which caused many other problems. My luthier is recommending I get an exterior rib lining. I was wondering if anyone had a picture of this. I'm just curious as to what this looks like. I've never seen one myself and can't seem to find one anywhere online.

Thanks!
 
#3
Yes, please. All of mine have outside linings, and that did not stop one of them from imploding when it was stored standing up for 10+ years before I got it. To be fair, that probably had more to do with the horrendous hot-glue repairs that bass was subjected to.
 
#4
Thanks for the replies.

Well, the bass was dropped a sometime in the past few months. I'm not sure when or by who but the last time I went to practice it, I found the bottom imploded.

Bass3.jpg


So the bass went to the luthier this past weekend. It has had major repairs done before where the top was removed and interior support work was done. The bass has a long history of the seams opening up every year with weather changes but the past repairs seemed to have helped. From what I remember, the seams joining the back of the bass tend to open more frequently than the front. This could be because the top was removed 10ish years ago and who knows the last time the back was removed. Anyways, my luthier wrote me:

I believe the bass may need an exterior rib lining
permanently affixed to securely join the back to the ribs. The back of this bass has tremendous torque to pull away from the ribs and block (I suspect this may have been the cause of past problems), and the exterior rib lining is the best way to achieve greater reliability of the joint. This procedure is best accomplished at the time of block replacement, as rib shortening is generally a required part of the procedure.
 
#5
THat sounds reasonable to me.
The air volume of the bass will get a bit smaller because the top needs to extend over the ribs for 1 to 2 mm to make contact with the exterior rib lining.
I think this is a major repair with all the work that has to be done, but will make your instrument a bit more robust (specially needed around the lower block). That may pay back over time...

BTW, my E.Wilfer bass had outer rib lining from the beginning and I have seen a lot of outer rib lining basses here in europe. Might be easier see and to repair if the lining separates from the rib.

I even saw a bass with a outer rib lining of about an inch wide (or more) around the lower 'bout. Mainly made to be able to slide the bass a bit along the rib when putting it down without hurting the top and back too much. Might be a good solution for your instrument too.
 
#6
Cute. If it makes you feel better mine was much, much worse.

Outer linings are a trade off...added stability at the expense of the ribs' ability to vibrate freely.

Is your bass a flatback? Making the back and ribs more stable and resistant to torque sounds like a fast track to added stress on the top, but what do I know?
 
#7
Yes, she would be a flatback. I'm not sure if it would be adding a ton of stress to the top as much as just spreading the stress out more evenly. But that's just a guess.
 
#9
Due to the curvature of the ribs, there is not much free vibration left for them, specially on the lower rib. The upper rib on a gamba style bass might vibrate a bit more close to the neck where it is less curved and this could probably be heard by the player because it is close to his ear.

I also hope a luthier might jump in here ...
 
#10
I dunno. If a plate keeps popping away from a rib then it seems to me that a better solution would be to alter the rib edge so that it better fits to the plate. This usually means building up the rib edges where there are gaps. I've been told that when you attach a plate you should arrange things so that it lies very flat against the ribs so that you needn't bend the plate when clamping, which will introduce stress, causing popped seams or worse, not to mention degraded resonance. Doing this also seems like much less work than tearing down the ribs to reduce them and adding linings. I'd go for a second opinion.
 
#11
If this repair is done, it is my understanding that the back will come off the bass which I assume would mean that the rib edges will be dressed?(not sure on the proper term) so that the back has much better contact with the ribs. It would seem silly to take the back off the bass and not touch up this edge before reattaching the back. The external ribs would then just add more support to this to help prevent future seam openings.

This is all just educated guesses. I am by no means a luthier or an expert on bass repair.
 
#12
robobass said:
I dunno. If a plate keeps popping away from a rib then it seems to me that a better solution would be to alter the rib edge so that it better fits to the plate. This usually means building up the rib edges where there are gaps. I've been told that when you attach a plate you should arrange things so that it lies very flat against the ribs so that you needn't bend the plate when clamping, which will introduce stress, causing popped seams or worse, not to mention degraded resonance. Doing this also seems like much less work than tearing down the ribs to reduce them and adding linings. I'd go for a second opinion.
Click to expand...
I'm with Robo. I would try to get the back to stop moving around so much. That may involve changing out the crossbars to a simple angled brace. Shortening the ribs, scraping off the finish and installing outer linings, then touching it all up is overly invasive. You may notice that nearly all good bass makers these days avoid outside linings, for good reason.
 

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