Micing an acoustic bass...

[cello john]

I'm demoing a Fender acoustic bass; the type built like an acoustic guitar but with four strings and onboard elctronics. Giong direct in to my ART DPS or the RNP gives me clean sound, but too "bassy", if you know what I mean. When I listen to a mix in the car, a lot of the bass is just lost in the lowest frequencies. I'm going to try micing a Crate acoustic amplifier but I thought I would ask for more advice trying to get more presence on to the track.
Which mic type would you try? LD,SD, Dynamic?
Also, any dynamic processing advice would be great as well. I have a couple of RNC's, but when I push them with the bass direct, they tend to get artifacty (is that a word?).
Thanks in advance...

jcd

 

[crazydoc]

I've mic'd double bass with an ECM8000 close, down by the bridge. Because it's an omni there's no proximity effect to exaggerate the low frequencies.
Some folks feel the mic has too much self noise, but that shouldn't be much of a problem for this application.

You should play with mic position up where the fingerboard meets the body, or down by the bridge or beyond while you monitor. If you're around the soundhole (it has one?) it will probably get too boomy or "bassy" in that area.

 

[darnold]

crazydoc explained it pretty good. The ECM8000 should be a decent mic if you are getting enough SPL for it. Generally though i have had to have my preamps pretty hot to pick up an Accoustic bass. This is at least how it is with a stand up. If you are liking the sound you are getting out of it with the way you are doing it you probably just need to suck out the frequencies around 60hz where i find most of the problem bass freqencies. Before i started micing by the bridge i could get a decent sound but i would have to cut 10-15dbs at 60hz.

A SP B1 or B3 (B3 would be nice with omni) would work pretty good for this. I think it does a pretty good job picking up bass instruments.