Snapped Bridge :'(

[mechanikal_rose]

I bought my first double bass one month ago, brand new from the store, (Cremona SB-2)
now, I wasn't particuarly keen on the strings it came with, I wanted the nylon weedwackers to learn on. I'd changed guitar strings plenty of times before, so i figured, as long as i changed one string at a time to keep the bridge in place I would be fine.

Everything was going well, until i changed the E sting. The first E note i managed to get out of it whilst tuning it, was incredibly floppy and made a fairly dead sounding E, so i kept tightening up through the scale to the next E note. I did notice it was starting to get quite tight by about the C note, and thought, well it has to be the next E as it was so horribly floppy and dead. Anyway, i got to D# and I hear a loud snap, my bridge has completely snapped in the middle into two!

What happens now? could it have been the bridge had some sort of weakness in the wood it was made out of, or was it something that was purely my fault for tightening it too far, if so, why was the first E note I found completely floppy with a dead note?

Any advice on what I do now (or what i didn't do right), and whats involved with getting it fixed, and perhaps how likely it might be that the store i bought it from would fix it under first year warranty? (i'll call them up anyway and ask, but just curious if its something they should cover if they say they cant or won't)?

Anyway, thanks for any help!

[MonetBass]

Yeah... tuning the E string up a whole octave will do that. Not sure why the proper E tuning was floppy, though. And since you attempted to change the strings, I doubt the warranty will cover it. Most likely they'll have to replace the bridge, since regluing it is not preferred.

This is why I will have the luthier change strings when my new ones come in. Good luck!

[JoeyNaeger]

What you tune new strings up on the bass, it pulls the bridge up towards the fingerboard, causing it to lean and bend. It sounds like you had changed the other strings already so I imagine the bridge was probably just leaning. Normally the bridge would just fall over, but I guess you have a cheap bridge. If the E still felt a lot looser then the other strings, then it probably wasn't that you had over tightened it. You'll have to get a luthier to fit a new bridge, and while you're at it, have them go through putting the strings on with you so you know what to look for in the future.

[accutone]

I think you will probably want to have a luthier look at it.

The soundpost might have fallen (check inside) or moved. You will have to have a new bridge cut and installed and there is a right way and a wrong way to do so, and to choose the correct bridge (I learned tons from reading Ken Smith's explanation on a recent thread about how a bridge fits and what size should be used. Take a look for that.) Good luck.