Wow! I feel pampered! Four luthiers (well, three and a guy that likes to file nuts)
all answering my questions. I sincerely appreciate all the advice.
Reading this, I decided to take in my other bass as well. The "Gormani" bows great but hey, it could definitely be better and easier.
First thing off, my luthier told me that my "Gormani" had relatively no scoop to the fingerboard, and that shaping the top of the bridge would help bowing, but like Matthew suggested, it would be difficult to press down on the D and A strings as they would of course be quite high off of the fingerboard.
So, now I have two basses in for adjustments. Hopefully now I'll know more before I purchase another instrument.
1) Fingerboards to be plained.
2) Top of bridges to be re-cut.
3) Overall mass of bridge to be reduced on the Gormani
For orchestral "slamming", do you all recommend 1mm height increments or 1.5mm?
I've always been curious what the ballpark figures are to make a string resonate properly. Surely the lowest strings needs minimum 9mm to vibrate properly?
Thanks again!