Double Bass Chuck Israels Mic - Revisited

[rickwolff]

I used to believe that you couldn't/shouldn't put a mic right over the basses F hole.

Well, it appears I was wrong, at least for this mic.

I was advised by the designer/inventor of the mic, Peter Axelson, that placing the mic right over the f hole is, in fact, the proper thing to do.

One of the purported benefits of the 'Chuck' is its resistance to BLEED and Feedback. It turns out that much of the secret in resisting bleed from other instruments is that by putting the mic right over the F hole you are giving the mic such a hot signal that you don't need to turn your amp up nearly as much. Therefore, whatever sound that does make it to the mic is not amplified much. Hence: More Bass, Less Bleed.

I did a little experiment with placing the mic first over the F hole, and then more over the soundpost, which most of us thought its the best place to put a microphone.

I'll let the recording speak for itself.

 

[rickwolff]

Here are the two channels from the video above. One channel is the 'Narration Mic' and the other channel is the Chuck Israels Mic on my bass.

You will notice that there is virtually no bleed from my voice into the Chuck Israels Bass Mic. Granted, a conversation level voice is not as loud as a drum set but you get the idea. With the mic set up as it was, there was plenty of gain on the bass without picking up my voice.

 

[rickwolff]

My pianist friend just sent me an MP3 of a tune we recently recorded. I'm still really loving the Chuck Israels mic for recording.

Have an outdoor trio gig tonight (eat your heart out, you cold-climate peeps). I'm going to blend the Chuck with my KNA.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Apropos of nothing, I fell by Kitano a couple of weeks back (Harvey Diamond, Cameron Brown, Billy Drummond), and ran into Chuck Israels there...

 

[Povl Carstensen]

I used to believe that you couldn't/shouldn't put a mic right over the basses F hole.

Well, it appears I was wrong, at least for this mic.

I was advised by the designer/inventor of the mic, Peter Axelson, that placing the mic right over the f hole is, in fact, the proper thing to do.

One of the purported benefits of the 'Chuck' is its resistance to BLEED and Feedback. It turns out that much of the secret in resisting bleed from other instruments is that by putting the mic right over the F hole you are giving the mic such a hot signal that you don't need to turn your amp up nearly as much. Therefore, whatever sound that does make it to the mic is not amplified much. Hence: More Bass, Less Bleed.

I did a little experiment with placing the mic first over the F hole, and then more over the soundpost, which most of us thought its the best place to put a microphone.

I'll let the recording speak for itself.

It is a very interesting subject. For sure the position over the F hole gives the loudest signal, and a much deeper, pillowier sound. But the soundpost position gives relatively the most mid/highs information. And the resulting sound is anyway very dependent on the inherent eq of the mic (low cut), and the distance from the bass (specially for hypercardoids).
So in my "quest" for making a mic (alone) work for amplification, I am at the moment focusing on the area around the soundpost. And with my mic (Countryman Isomax Hypercardioid) and distance, about 12 cms, I seem to get an adequate balance between treble (attack, etc) and bass, running straight through (no eq'ing) my MAS16. And interesting, I can add or subtract bass by pointing/moving the mic slightly away or closer to the sound post. But it is a work in progress...