Oh boy... I was prepared for a minor disappointment. After all, the DPA is a wonderful mic that faithfully reproduces the sound of my bass, especially through my Glockenklang rig, which is designed to amplify an incoming signal as accurately as possible. So, after having received the Ehrlund yesterday I attached it to my bass, roughly at the same spot as drurb did on his bass (I assumed this would be a good position to begin my sonic exploration for the perfect spot), connected it to an Atelier der Tonkunst DI and my Centrance MicPort Pro mic preamp/AD converter, launched Logic, adjusted the input level and pressed Record to record me playing the bass. Then I listened back to the recording.
Oh my...
Oh my...
I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing! It sounded almost like a recording done with my DPA, minus the airiness that mics typically deliver. I only needed to cut a few db at about 110 Hz to get rid of a dominant frequency (which I needed to do when using the DPA, too, btw) and I could listen to the sound of my bass, recorded through a PICKUP! (ok, contact microphone...) This morning I set up my Glockenklang rig, connected the Ehrlund and started playing. Loud. Really loud. Really really loud. No.Feedback.Whatsoever. It almost sounds like a cliché, but once I dialed out the 110 Hz frequency with the parametric eq of my amp, I heard my bass, but only louder. I put the bass in front of the speaker: no feedback. I turned the amp up so loud that I almost did not dare to play a note: no feedback. Just the sound of my bass, only louder. No noise, no artifacts, no nothing. Just the sound of my bass. I was prepared to be disappointed, but I have to admit that this pickup, for my bass and my playing, indeed is the holy grail. Provided it will hold up at a gig, of course. That I still need to check, but the prospects are good indeed.
BTW: I got the pickup and preamp. Like most other Ehrlund users, I am convinced that this the only way to get the most out of the pickup. I tried it without, and both volume and tone (fulness in particular) were lacking.
Cheers,
Vincent