Finally found "my" luthier!

[Buddy Lee]

I've finally found a luthier in my area, who works on basses and is halfway reasonably priced.
He's a friendly old man in a village 17 km from here.
I've already bought a set of Rotosound strings for 150 bucks at my local music store, the luthier's gonna set up my crappy chinese bass for about 350. (180 for a new adjustable bridge and a new soundpost, about 150 labor cost).
Hopefully, I'll be rollin' again thereafter.

But there are some astonishing cognitions about my cheap piece of plywood. My fingerboard seems to be perfectly plane! My luthier was really amazed that there was no buzz and no rattle, even though the current action is very low.
Furthermore he agreed that in consideration of the low price (500 Euros) my bass has a quite decent sound - without having been set up...
The bass bar has suffered a bit from pressure, but it's currently holding up yet.
I guess, when the setup's done, I'll really have a playable axe that'll also suit my needs tone-wise.

And yeah - when I can afford it, I'll buy a "real" plywood bass. One fine day...

[lermgalieu]

I took my bass to a different luthier last week. While he is not as advanced in ability as the other luthier I go to, he specializes only in basses. The other luthier I go to, who has planed my fingerboard, installed a new endpin, etc, is revered around town, and also revered by this new guy I went to. However, I felt more comfortable with my communication with the new guy. He was able to listen to my vague complaints, let me play a couple other basses in the shop, and translated this into a series of steps to bring my bass a more open, relaxed sound. So I guess the point is that if the neck snaps off, I'd probably go to the old luthier, but in terms of setup work and fine tuning, it really helps if you can find a hard core bass playing luthier as opposed to a violin guy. AT least that's what I think, we'll see how it sounds when I pick it up tomorrow.

[Buddy Lee]

Finally got her back! She's still a crappy chinese bass, but now she plays like butter and sounds louder and better!!
My luthier installed a "new" bridge with higher action (he had an old one lying around that he raised with wood shims), filed the nut slots, adjusted the soundpost and strung the bass with my set of Rotosounds.
I paid only 50 bucks!!!

Now I'm ready to roll again!