Here are my opinions on the classes mentioned. Yours will likely (or, obviously, rather) vary:
First, an aside: As for the Bard with the Central Casting applied - I pity you, you poor soul, though you were lucky - so many central castings come out something like "your mother was the town mayor, and your father was the town gigolo, at adolescence you and an Orc were struck simultaneously by a magical falling star, that gave you remarkable constitution and made you mentally bonded; then at age 18 you were sold into slavery where you were marooned on a desert island with a slave tribe of Capoeria-dancers, and learned the skills of a 1st level monk."
One guy, thanks to a creative DM, was a Human who was...violated at an early age, which reveled his powers as a lesser avatar of the god Tempus - suggesting to me that I will NEVER run through central casting with THAT DM!"
The bard you decribed could EASILY be done up as a con-man. You have plenty of ranks for perform, bluff, sense motive, and gather information, and the spells could be interpreted in any fashion - even as oratory! Imagine just talking someone into better health, or charming someone without a single musical instrument. It's all possible just with the PHB description of the class. Add in rogue levels at every second or third level, and you have a con-man who can also sneak away when the going gets rough!
As for the "martial thief," making him 1 part monk / 4 parts rogue means that you have a character that is much better than your average rogue at avoiding damage, and can kick butt on anyone who underestimates him.
The basic premise of D&D now is that no one, NO ONE starts out great at first level; having a 2-page biography at first level is a bit of an inconsistency. I would presume that each half-page of character history would be the equivalent of one character level. So many people I see (present company excluded) lament about "Why their 1st level character can't be good at fighting, stealth, AND divine and Arcane spellcasting," and proceed to offer a character history that would read like a 12th level character's life story! They need to LIVE that story they just described, rather than write about it. I have seen many gamers in my time who write a life history, just for cajoling their DM into letting them have an advantage from class A, another advantage from Class C and Class D, etc.
In this fashion, Central Casting, if abused by the DM, can give a character two or three levels worth of advantages just by phenomenal rolls.
Die Kluge, Play that character to the most! Pick your bard and stick with it! Add some levels of other classes if it suits the need better, but enjoy your role most of all, no matter what the rolls hand you!
Peace, all.