Mic or piezo for acoustic bass

[redtomfunk]

Hi all,
I bought a second hand fretless acoustic bass which was built without any mic/pickup.
What is the best way to amplify it having in mind that I want to come closest possible to a double bass sound?

Microphone or piezo and which?

 

[nmiller]

I am not a fan of piezos. They were great for 1968, but they have a very distinctive sound and if you want to sound like a real acoustic instrument you need to run them through some sort of modeling preamp like Aura makes. The most "believable" acoustic sounds I've heard (aside from just putting a studio mic in front of the instrument) came from in-body microphones. The good ones are more expensive than the average piezo, but to my ears, they're worth it.

I am not well-versed in the mic pickups on the market these days. I enjoyed the LR Baggs Lyric, and it's fairly easy to find, but there may be better ones out there.

 

[dwizum]

Tone of piezos is heavily reliant on the preamp used. In my experience people who don't like piezos either heard one without a preamp at all, or at best a bad quality preamp. At the end of the day, an in-body mic needs a good preamp too, so it's a wash from my perspective. The good news is, there have been a lot of advancements over the years and there are a lot of great sounding onboard preamps. Bartolini and graphtech are popular for piezos. Piezos and mics are both pretty easy to add, though piezos and don't have the drawbacks that an internal mic has - namely, the mic will pretty much always pick up background noise - just rubbing the bass against your shirt can make a lot of noise through an in-body mic, and playing a mic-equipped bass in a loud setting can be a problem. Piezos can pick up background noise too, though IME not nearly to the same extent.

If you have a local music store, I'd go there and try a bunch of acoustic basses out and see what you like the best. Your goal of getting it to sound like an upright is going to be a challenge, and will be much more about the setup, string choice, and so on rather than the type of pickup.

 

[Warpeg]

Hi all,
I bought a second hand fretless acoustic bass which was built without any mic/pickup.
What is the best way to amplify it having in mind that I want to come closest possible to a double bass sound?

Microphone or piezo and which?

Is this for live gigs or studio recording?

If used for gigs, then I highly recommend using a piezo pickup and a good preamp. My experience comes from my DB, but I cannot imagine trying to pull off a live gig with a microphone. Bass instruments are not as loud as other instruments around you, so you may run into a lot of cross-talk issues from other instruments if using a mic. A piezo will keep your tone isolated.

If used for recording, then either a mic or a mixture of mic and piezo will work. Mics generally have a much more natural tone.

 

[redtomfunk]

Thanks, everyone. I am waiting for the bass to come to start trying something. In terms of preamps what would your suggestions be?