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You say the first thing to do is to change the bridges, and yes a nice new bridge blank will certainly look nicer and may sound a bit better, but I suspect that any improvement in sound just due to bridge crown shape, or the amount of wood over the heart, or leg length, may be small compared with the improvement in sound you could probably get just by giving the basses to a good luthier to tweak a little, and putting on some new strings. I suggest asking the luthier what he/she suggests is the best way to spend your budget!
So, are your basses 3/4 size or half size? what's the string length?
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Thank you for chipping in, Matthew.
The reason behind getting the bridge replaced is due to the way it is current fitted. The bridge is perpendicular to the table on the fingerboard side, instead of the tailpiece side. Please see the attached image.
These basses are ¾ size. String length is 40.5” or 1030mm (middle of bridge between D and A strings to the fingerboard-nut joint). F neck (is this uncommon or just plain “wrong”?). The fingerboard is bevelled under the E string.
Over the past few weeks I have tried new Belcantos, 1 year old Flexorcor Originals (minus the E), few month old Spirocore Weichs (that came with the bass), and newish Evah Pirazzi Mediums. All orchestra sets. I have decided to go with the EP’s after weighing the pros and cons in my situation, playing ability and what not. I’m waiting on a set of EP weichs to decide which will work best for me ultimately and will put the string hunt to rest. I hope that they will arrive before I have to take the bass to the luthier for the proper set up.
A bit of background about me. I was trained in Precision Engineering but now I build architectural models for a living. Not that it means anything in the world of luthiery, but I do have access to a workshop with a LOT of tools and machines (sanders, saws, lathe, CNC routers, laser etc), and I know how to use them, properly. As much as I would like to work on the bass on my own, the workshop is no place for a delicate music instrument, besides, I rather keep these two parts of my life separate for now. More importantly, I would like as least one the basses to be set up by someone who has more knowledge about string instrument than I do. For example, I don’t know for sure now where the ideal position of the tailpiece on this bass should be.
There’s a local timber supplier I get wood from for work and I am sure they can sort me out with some quatersawn maple and I can cut my own bridge blanks. But then again this begs the question of the “quality” of the wood itself. Even if I cut it to the approximate dimension and let it air dry for a while before using it, how dry is dry enough? Do I need to treat it? If yes, with what? Man... maybe I really do need to quit my day job if I want to get into the art of luthiery...
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On the C bout clearance or any other issue, it will NOT help you play better to struggle. Like running a race with one leg tied. Bass is hard enough to play. Don't make it any harder with a bad set-up.
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Sage advice. Noted and much appreciated.