lowlandtrees Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 I have a small bodied double bass similar to an Eminence. Want to improve the amplified sound. Have a Realist pup which sounds OK but am trying to combine it with a mic to pick up slap and improve the acoustic sound. Using EA doubler/ Mesa cab/Focusrite(and ART) pre amps. The mic at present is a Sennheiser MD421 but all I get is very low volume and feedback. Maybe it is just not possible to get volume on something that does not produce volume. Also have some good condenser mics but would imagine that they would be worse for feedback and bleed in a live situation. Was thinking clip on mic? (don t have one and know nothing about them). Also thought about using a separate cab for the mic? Would love a Blast Cult bass but that is years away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 (edited) I had an Eminence at one point and it sounded great amplified (Realist) but terrible unamplified - like a cigarette box with rubber bands on. No microphone would have made it sound good. If your bass is similar to an Eminence I suspect you will struggle to find any mic will make it sound good, which means you will need to stick to a transducer mic. The Realist is known for being quite dark so maybe you can borrow a different type of piezo pickup? A BassMax or Underwood for example that slot in the bridge wings with no modification (the Underwood definitely sounds great on my smaller bodied Kolstein travel bass as. It's brighter). Edited July 13, 2014 by Clarky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlandtrees Posted July 13, 2014 Author Share Posted July 13, 2014 Yes I quite like the Realist but it seems to me to miss out quite a lot of the other tones that a full size bass produces and was wondering if it were possible to 'find' these in my instrument somehow with the correct mic and pre amp settings........I know that the obvious answer to this is to...get a proper bass.... but I like a lot about the small body. I also like slap and that seems to be lost on this bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero9 Posted July 13, 2014 Share Posted July 13, 2014 If you're looking to get a slap sound, you'll need a twin transducer such as a K&K Rockabilly Bass Master Plus or similar. This will allow you to pick up fingerboard sounds and may also help with getting it to sound a bit more like a full upright. It's going to be trial and error and the transducers need to be well fitted to get the 'best' sound. You'll always struggle to get an acoustic tone without much of body to work with. I concur with Clarky about the Realist sounding dark. I found the K&K less so inclined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlandtrees Posted July 13, 2014 Author Share Posted July 13, 2014 Thanks. K&K looks interesting but expensive...I have a brand new unused Realist that I can swap or punt. Would be interested if anyone on the forum has tried this with a small bodied DB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jensenmann Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 You could try to get a cheap piezo transducer, something like this: http://us.shadow-electronics.com/products/double_bass/main/sh_sb_1 Stick it under the fretboard for the click. With a passive piezo you will need an active DI with a very high impedance input (>5MOhm). These are rare. Have a look at the specsheet of your DI to make sure that it´s not the usual 1MOhm input DI. These will kill the treble. There´s a specialized product for exactly this purpose: http://www.radialeng.com/pzdi.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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