Set up differences/jazz and classical players

[Ken Smith]

Whew.. now that I finished cleaning off my shoes after stepping into that debate, lets get back to topic.

I have used spacing as tight as 23.5/24mm and as wide as 27 mm. The 27mm is recent as Arnold likes that for Bowing and does from 26-27mm on my Basses that might go up for sale after I break in the Bass. This would be an orchestra set-up. Last week I had a visitor that played Jazz, acoustic only with Gut strings and preferred wider spacing and higher string height. His set-up was close to the highest and widest I have seen and he plucks at the edge of the FB towards the bridge. He plays hard and loud and loves the oldies like Blanton, S.Jones, Chambers, R.Brown and Mingus etc.

On the opposite note, I still have the Bridge from my old Italian Bass that I played both Jazz and Classical styles on and the spacing is about 23.5-24mm per string center-to-center.

This was what I meant about there being no standards. Brian Bromberg and Stanley Clarke prefer ultra low action while others are up there with the classical guys height wise. Also, while most Classical players prefer higher action, there are some that like it lower and tighter.