Choosing the 'right' Bass for you...

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Arnold Schnitzer

The measurements I concern myself with are the overstand and the bridge height. If the bass has broad shoulders, higher overstand can help a bit with playabilty in "no-man's land" and thumb position. Too high and you reduce the breakover angle at the bridge too much. The bridge needs to be high enough for adequate bow clearance and top pressure, but not so high as to choke the sound, or cause the player fatigue in the bow arm. I don't believe the angle of the back to the scroll is relevant, because basses have all kinds of back tapers. Some have a constant taper from endblock to neck. Some have no taper until the upper bout. Some have a little taper at the bottom and then more in the upper bout (mine). And then there are some with no taper at all.

Arnold, how about angle/pitch-back of fingerboard to body? Is this all done with the bridge height in mind?

I have had basses with 6" tall bridges that cleared wide c-bouts and others at 6.5" that barely cleared the bouts of a similar size. Is the top arch something that is added in the formula here. How about overall bout shape and corner types? Also, where the bridge lays in proportion to all of this, the end of the fingerboard and where you play/bow the bass is an equal factor of concern as well, would you agree?

With such a variation in the overall sizes and designs of basses I see that no two basses can be compared with so many variables to consider. I guess just playing them one by one and prescribing the steps for improvement is what's needed on a case-by-case or rather bass-by-bass situation.

Also, I just thought of this. The arch of the bridge and the height of the outer strings (G and E) from the body/top and not the center of the bridge are most important here. The fingerboard curve as well needs to match the proper bridge curve as well. I can't tell you how many basses I have played that everything was fine in the neck area but due to bridge and fingerboard issues played poorly.