Double Bass advice on how to mike in an emergency?

[fovea1959]

My Realist started cutting out in rehearsal tonight... our big band has gig the night after tomorrow (44 hours). absolutely need amplification, no chance to go out and buy *anything* (I leave for the gig straight from work, so I need to have this worked out before I hit the hay tomorrow night, and we have no local music stores at all).

using a AI Coda SIII, and my venerable Englehardt EM1. the latter keeps me from being *too* fussy about sound quality, the bass is kind of crappy anyway.

got home, experimented with just wrapping a towel around a dynamic vocal mike, slipping it between the tailpiece and the top of the bass, pointing at the bridge. Not bad. I've seen references to wrapping in foam and doing the same thing.

I thought I'd seen pictures in this thread of such a setup, but came up blank...

Anyone have an pointers on how I can get this thing miked (I do *not* want to use a stand, I don't even think I could find a boom before tomorrow night, and I move around *way* too much for a stand anyway)...

TIA.

 

[Marc Piane]

Just shove it through the afterlengths...

 

[moles]

Yup - options are:
4 elastics/through the afterlength.
Wrapped in foam/towel, wedged between the TP and body.
Wrapped in foam/towel, shoved in between the bridge feet.

All three options are workable.

 

[Michael Glynn]

Looks like you've got all the good advice on mic placement. One thing I would add is to get familiar with the notch filter on your amp. It may come in handy if there is a particularly resonant note on stage at your gig. The problem note(s) may be different at home and on the gig, but you might want to play with it at home. Turn up the volume until you notice any notes that are extra boomy or ringy. Turn on the notch filter, sweep it clockwise and see if the problem goes away or gets markedly better at some point. Like I said, if there is a problem note on the gig, it may be different than at home, but at least now you will have a reference for what position the knob should be in for one note. It should be a little easier to find a new note from there.

Also, if there is a PA, try to send a line to it and use that as the main sound reinforcement, using your amp at a lower level mainly as a stage monitor. Oh yeah, and if the PA has actual stage monitors, keep the mic signal out of them, or you may have real feedback trouble.

 

[fovea1959]

all good advice, I'll probably be able to make this work "good enough" for tomorrow night; next gig is a week away. I'll probably try the rubber band mount if I can find a small enough mike, otherwise a towel/foam wrapped one behind the tailpiece. It didn't sound great, but it was better than the loaned Palatino I had in the corner (ugh!).

I'm going to see if our drummer has any of those little clip mount condensers that I can borrow and try during sound check. They seem to be another popular inexpensive solution.

interestingly, the notes about house PA, monitors, and feedback are not a change for me; my Realist tends to feedback easily, so the monitor placement and monitor level issues are ones we fight already (especially since I am next to the drummer, who absolutely requires a monitor!). I will take time to crank the gain, find the ringing, and see if I can notch it out (it's usually at the same frequency, we play outdoors 80%+ of the time, the resonant frequency of the great outdoors doesn't seem to shift much from location to location)...

definitely going mike shopping after tomorrw, need an (inexpensive) backup...

the advice (and any additional advice) is much appreciated.

 

[fovea1959]

The pickup didn't give me a lick of trouble until I set the URB down to switch to electric; came back to URB, and it... was... dead.

Thanks for *all* the advice, I used it all, and the backup plan worked perfectly. Had a EV ND757 rubber banded in place ready to go. Swapped cables. Director didn't notice the delay. Sound guy was on alert, and pumped up the gain in the PA. I was a little quieter on stage, but it apparently good out in the park.