cello sides

ayer

Going for the (relatively) big one - started a cello!

I've heard that many makers reinforce cello sides with linen or some other cloth to prevent splitting/cracking.

Is this really necessary if the sides are uniformly thick at 1.6 or 1.7 mm?
Could using cloth reinforcements have any effect on the sound?
I'm not at the stage yet where I have to decide, but I'd be most interested to hear your comments.
Thanks in advance,

Monika

Depends what wood you use....very curly maple has to be thin to bend....so you need to use linen strips inside.
I'm making another poplar wood Cello at the moment, the ribs are thicker at 1.9mm so I don't use linen inside.

Strad used linen inside, it seems to make zero difference to the sound.