Am I looking in the wrong direction ?

[C.Veltman]

Am I looking in the wrong direction ?

Most of us try to find a great upright with a fine acoustic tone, and so have I.
Then we test a lot of different mics/piezos and strings etc, and so have I.

But a few weeks back I bought a 1/2 Wilfer upright (ply sides and back,
top solid spurce). Broken of neck without scroll but fixed that and refinshed the bass.
Fitted a cheap set of Check strings (Strunal at 12US/set).
The strings are very soft and produce a weak tone but a long sustain.
Awfull arco sound...

The acoustic tone from the bass is poor and nasal,
it would hardly excite any bassplayer...

But, this bass sounds great when plygged in an amp !
Actually much better than my vintage upright that has a very fine acoustic tone.

Are "good sounding" basses less good sounding when miked ?
Could it be that acoustically fine basses are more sensitive for feedback
due to more resonant wood ?

Theoretically I can understand the conection between a "dead" acoustic sound
and the benefits when miking. This type of bass is "closer" to the URB´s.

Would be most interested in your thoughts or/and experiences !

Kind regards,
CV

[olivier]

Hi CV, this is thought-provoking but there is some rational to it. To paraphase you, the nice accoustic sound of a fine bass is too hot to be picked up decently while the dead sound of a muted no-pedigree thang is just the right signal!
My opinion was not going so far, but I must admit that given the poor sound quality of amplified DB, I agree that a very fine instrument is not absolutely needed to play through an amp. The common knowledge though is rather that you won't get a good amped sound out of a bad accoustic sound, so this is controvertial.
Anyway, this tread should make many jazz bassists happier with their outfit... and you could start an import/export operation with Strunal strings.
Take it easy, keep experimenting.

[Marty Forrer]

I have read many times of bassists having a fine bass for live jazz, and a plywood Kay or similar for recording. Their opinion seems to be that a good bass is too "alive" to record well. I don't know myself, I can only afford one!