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Thanks for all the responses guys...pretty much as I expected - there's no right or wrong answer here. while I was at the Status workshop I tried out the 16.5 spacing and indeed it felt really natural - it felt 'better' for solo fingering but not as fluid with certain plucking techniques - it was very marginal. Though there's only so much experimenting you can do in a few hours.. Just to confuse matters, I have always fitted Schaller bridges to my other basses, which have adjustable threaded saddles so I can vary the string spacings between each string ! I generally make the D/G spacing fractionally more - so it's abit of a combination of the two - sounds wierd but works for me. I like the comments re 'sausage fingers' - well not quite but my hands certainly aint dainty....I think I'd just be kicking myself forever if I spend best part of 3 grand on a bass I can;t play as well as I want - and the wife would never speak to me again (now there's a thought)..