Fingerboard and Bridge relationships

[Ken McKay]

I thought I would post this here as well as that other place.

Did your fingerboard ever love your bridge? Is your bridge plotting adultery? Was this an arranged wedding, a shotgun perhaps?

NO, this is serious! Have a look at the photos. The first shows the fingerboard and bridge and their bow clearance shaped like in the Strobel Useful Measurements book. This basically sucks. The middle strings are way higher off the fingerboard when the "classical bridge shape is used, and still high when shaved down flatter for "jazz". The second Photo is with a beefier fingerboard that is shaped to give more height under the middle strings, yet preserving the bow clearance with a matching bridge.

I call it a parabolic fingerboard and bridge and it works well on a real instrument. The only catch is that the standard fingerboard blanks are a too shallow to achieve this. I had to start from a plank of ebony.

Somewhere in between these two extremes probably lies the majority of bass set ups I would think.