Double Bass Re - repair or live with it?

[pottsandpans]

Hello, all! I am primarily a singer and guitar player- however, a few months back I came upon the opportunity to trade an old "frankentele" for a double bass... and who wouldn't want a double bass?
It is a Chinese plywood instrument in rough shape, but plays fine and has been a ton of fun to play around on and to let our bass player use for acoustic folk stuff.
Only real issue is it has wicked high action... which leads me to my question...

In doing some research into lowering action I was initially thinking about modifying the bridge. After measuring the bridge though, it looks like it is probably as short as it should be. This led me to think about if the angle of the fretboard and neck was off. As you can see in the photos, there has been what I am assuming is a broken neck at some point in this bass' history. It is holding together just fine, but I am thinking it was not exactly professionally done. Am I right in assuming that the angle of the neck is off, leading to high action down the fretboard? And if so, is it worth trying to take it apart? My best guess would be that it was wood glued together, it also looks like there might be a screw or a dowel covered up with some putty in the back.
As I see it, I have 3 options: try to fix the neck, shave down the bridge, or just live with the high action.
And I know the obvious answer for big Repair things like this would be take it to a luthier, but seeing as I traded a 200 dollar guitar for it I would probably just live with the high action before I put a bunch of money into this bass.

On a separate note, is there any way to tell what kind of strings are currently on the bass? I would be interested in trying different kinds of bass strings, but I don't know if that would help the sound or feel that much, and I don't feel like paying a couple of hundred bucks for strings only to find that they are not much better than the ones on there. It really sounds pretty decent, all things considered.


Thanks for your input!!

 

[Carl Hillman]

but I am thinking it was not exactly professionally done.

To say the very least.

 

[Ortsom]

Indeed. But if that holds I'd leave that for now.
You could lower the string height by filing the string notches in the bridge a bit deeper. Or maybe the bridge should be positioned differently. Please search in the TB pages for recommended string height & other set-up issues. Branded strings can be identified by the colours of the silk ends (& ball shape), that too is somewhere in the TB pages. (Btw, the silk part is normally only below the bridge, not in the sounding section.)

Good luck!

 

[Remyd]

I say live with it, maybe get adjusters installed if you're looking for that level of control. Maybe $100, maybe less.

FWIW, your string height is about the same as mine, and I have it set up there on purpose, so it's not *that* high. Strings make a huge difference - to save money, buy used (here in the classifieds or elsewhere).

 

[Steven Ayres]

Yes, the poor repair set the neck angle wrong. If the instrument's function is only "something to play around on," you'll get by with cutting down the bridge. Be aware that this will reduce its voice to some extent, in addition to what you're already losing to the shaky joint.

Repairing the neck correctly will cost more than it might have because of the hassle of taking all that nastiness apart again, and the expense won't really pencil out in terms of market value. So your choices are live with it, pay a little too much and enjoy it, or throw the bass away.

 

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

The neck joints in those things are often a nightmare. Huge can of worms.

Those strings are LaBella Supernils and their tension should be low enough to not cause injury at that height.