American Standard setup?

[Dan Berkowitz]

I've had a '60s American Standard upright since the early '80s, but I've never been that happy with how it sounds. In particular, the E string sounds choked and lacks depth/punch. The whole bass is a bit midrangy.

My main use is for swing or acoustic blues, although I occasionally do some arco for classical stuff...but certainly not my main use.

Two different shops have looked at this bass. One shortened the soundpost until it would barely stay in, along the way finding it had been installed sideways before. The second shop added a shim onto the bottom of the soundpost to make it longer and moved the bridge up to shorten the scale to about 42" from its original 43+ inches.

With these moves, the bridge had been a bit too tall at one point, it was cut down and then sometime after needed to have the adjusters raised about 1/2". The string height is comfortable now and I'm using Permanents.

My question then: What should be expected from this bass, especially from the E string? I thought it was supposed to be a loud, big sounding bass.

And a related question: Is there something to look at that would eliminate the choked sound of the E string?

If it matters, the neck had been broken at the heel when I bought it and the repair job has held all these years. Recently, in cleaning and resealing the neck, I noticed that there is a fine crack running approximately parallel to the fingerboard for the first 8 or so inches. This may have been part of the original break, but I didn't see it until cleaning things up.

Also, it's virtually the only double bass I've played, other than in a shop.

Suggestions?