New Fingerboard

I recently had some major work done on my bass: new fingerboard, shortened the length (from 44"+ to 42"3/4) with a new nut, new bridge. The work was exceptionally done by a luthier named Mike Magee in Slippery Rock, Pa ([email protected]). Mike studied bass at Eastman and came to PA from Michigan. He was highly recommended to me by Jeff Turner (principal, PSO), and I would highly recommend him myself!

Anyway, I love the bass. I love it! The board is perfect. I play a mix of styles, but mostly jazz. It's LOUDER now (even w/ a shorter scale length), MUCH more focused while seemingly being a little more resonant on the 'A' and 'D'. What I don't like are my STRINGS. I had discovered D'Addario Helicore Hybrid Heavy gauge strings about 4 months prior, and loved them. They sound like crap now! Scratchy, hard to start, overtones galore, much less 'mellow' than when I had the old board/bridge on the bass. I can live with the pizz, but the arco leaves much to be desired!

So my question is this: does adding a new board, perhaps, add a bit of brightness to the instrument? More focus? It's becoming way apparent that while my old setup dug Helicores, the new setup doesn't really care much for them, particularly arco. They seem much brighter now, a little less quick to start, and even a bit tighter(?). Has this ever happened to anyone?

I guess this is my excuse to buy another set of Evahs to try on "this" bass!

 

It looks like it was, ultimately, set-up. Believe it or not, there was a 1mm bump in the bridge curvature around the A-string, as well as a bump somewhere near "C" on the A-string. Mike compared it to me not being able to sleep on a pea. . . LOL. It also helped to go back to Spiro Weichs (again). This new board/bridge just doesn't like a high tension string, especially for arco.

Again, I need to say that Mike Magee is unbelievable. He is not as visible as the David Gages or Mike Shanks of the world, but his work is exceptional. I spent over 4 hours in his shop yesterday playing the bass and then getting the fingerboard planed to a place to where my setup would be comfortable, and I was treated like Jeff Turner (whose bass he's working on right now). He's a class act and his fingerboard work is exceptional, if not downright artistic. Highly recommended!

 

Well, not having the time to go to Kansas City (or Vancouver) really hampered me.

The guy deserves kudos for taking a day to get my setup right. . . for free. Of course, you're totally welcome to come to Pittsburgh to install my next fingerboard!