Double Bass string Height Story

[bassplayer48]

Hi Guys,
ok i had my bass strung with Spiro weichs and was prety happy with the sound although the bass has always sounded a bit "tight" somwhow. Anyway since i mainly play bluegrassand rockabilly (not much a slap player however) i decided to try Inovation SIlver Slaps for a more old school thumpy sound so the silvers were a much fatter gauge so the luthier raised the bridge so that the E had 12m (was about 9mm before) clearance from the bottom of the string to the board.

Anyway acoustically i quite liked them but amplified with the realist pup they sounded horrible just too boomy and hollow.
so rather than start messing with pickups i decided to put back the spiros i had a gig that night s i thought rather fiddle with the bridge i'll just leave it for now and adjust it down later.

Anyway when i put them on i thought wow they sound bettter than i remember?
So turned up at the gig and from the first song the bass just sounded fantastic, it seems like with the higher action this has opened the bass right up wonderfull responsive tone and even though a bit more of a challenge to play its worth the sacrifice.

So wasted $159 on strings but learn't something priceless.

 

[aaronallen]

Nice. When I want to raise my action, I do so in much smaller increments than that in order to ease the transition and avoid injury. I found that 6mm under the G is the sweet spot for both me and my bass.

 

[360guy]

There are so many things that add to the sound of any given bass but here is some speculation on yours: perhaps by raising the strings more tension overall is now on the strings and that accounts for the improved sound. If that is so then you might be able to lower the tailpiece ( by shorting the tailpiece wire) to get more tension on the strings and go back to a more comfortable playing string height.