Marion, Since you took your fiddle back where you bought it, I'm guessing they had already done a setup before you picked it up. They just looked to see if anything had lost it's orignal placement. At another shop, they may have done the same thing but charged you a small fee. If you tell them you want the setup changed—different bridge, altered action or tonality—it would have taken more time and cost more.

The reason your bridge might be too high isn't the Thomastik brand necessarily, it's because a violin is normally sold for use in classical playing using gut strings. When you use metal strings, the tension is higher and the arc of vibration is smaller. This means you'd want the strings a little closer to the fingerboard. The Spirocore may be closer to gut strings in terms of tension and arc of vibration. Also, fiddling tends to employ bow crossings that are difficult to do using a bridge with a classical arch. There should be just enough arch to allow single note playing but crossing quickly between double and tripple stops should be possible. You might want to get to know some French Canadian fiddlers see how their fiddles are set up.

I'm guessing the Spirocore strings are wound with aluminium rather than the chrome used on the Superflexible model. That means your E will probably need replacement more often than the other strings.

I'll be anxious to get a report on your new Spirocores.

      - Mark