Hello, I am posting this on behalf of a friend:
Her violin bridge measures a 33.5mm at the centre (Mine measures a 31mm), the G string clearance at the end of the fingerboard is 7mm (mine is 5mm) and the e string clearance is at 6(almost 7)mms while mine is only 3.5mm!
She finds that she is consistently double stopping on the strings - a viola friend (she's passed Grade 8) tried the violin and sometimes double stopped too. - she only really play the viola but mentioned that the bridge seems too high... What is the ideal height for the bridge, and does she need to get the bridge lowered?

Thanks

EDIT: the violin has a stentor bridge, it that makes any difference!

There's no absolute rule, it's partly a matter of personal preference, but it certainly sounds like she'd benefit from having it lowered.

The tendency with factory violins is to err on the high side - and indeed a good luthier will do the same when fitting a bridge - because lowering it is a simple task whereas raising it is impossible and requires a replacement.

I had to have my recently-acquired cello adjusted a few months after purchase: it needed adjustments to the bridge, fingerboard and nut as the action was too high. It took them a couple of hours to sort it out.

It may just be the bridge - which is a much simpler job.

If you mean by "double stopping" that the bow is catching more than one string unintentionally, the problem is that the bridge curvature is wrong, rather than the height. If it's 33mm-ish in the middle it's probably going to be overly flat to give the string heights you describe (assuming a normal neck set).

Not necessarily. Even with the right curvature, a very high bridge will result in pressing the strings down below the adjacent ones.

Yes, but 33 mm is not a "very high bridge". It's pretty much textbook height.

Depending on the fingerboard! (I'm not ruling out the curvature being a possible culprit, mind, just that it's not the only explanation. We can probably agree that the violin needs looking at.)

My friend bought the violin to the violin shop to have a look at - apparently it looks a little like a bridge blank! whatever that means SHe's had it cut down and finds it much easier to play... Thank you guys