Mic'ing the F-hole on a hollowbody bass

[3toes]

I was fiddling around with my Lakland hollowbody late last night, just playing it acoustically. I really really enjoy the sound I get just coming out of the f-hole and it got me thinking... Has anyone ever mic'd their hollowbody bass? Either bypassing the electronics altogether or maybe blending both the mic and the electronics with a mixer?

EDIT: And if this is better suited for the Live Sound forum, mods please feel free to move.

[4Mal]

Originally Posted by 3toes

I was fiddling around with my Lakland hollowbody late last night, just playing it acoustically. I really really enjoy the sound I get just coming out of the f-hole and it got me thinking... Has anyone ever mic'd their hollowbody bass? Either bypassing the electronics altogether or maybe blending both the mic and the electronics with a mixer?

EDIT: And if this is better suited for the Live Sound forum, mods please feel free to move.

You might be a candiate for a piezo bridge if you dig that more acoustic sort of sound.

[Thunderthumbs73]

Not saying you can't mic the hole, but at higher volume you'd have to turn up the amplification source, the more likely you'd be picking up extraneous sounds and potentially incurring feedback, earlier and a lower volume. For it's pitch and lack of projection, mic-ing an f-hole in an ABG, may not be an ultimately satisfactory or productive effort for practical use. Maybe a pickstyle technique would offset the projection a bit, but in doing so, the higher frequencies are much more pronounced in relation to the lows. And that could be a bad thing. Or maybe a good thing.

It's a little different for acoustic guitars, whose projection and pitch range provide more satisfactory results in mic-ing.