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Double Bass Troll Ribbon Mic

I concur, the Troll is awesome! I used a Crown PG200 mixed with a Realist through a Fishman Pocket Blender for years, and while it worked well, the mic was not capable of giving me a usable volume level as the main part of the sound. It blended well to provide some "air" for the pickup, but I could never use just the mic. The Troll works for "air" too, but I find I can use just the Troll and get a true miked tone through my amp at gig volume. My best results have been using the Troll into an Acoustic Image Flex pre, which has phase, HPF, and a +20dB gain boost for the XLR input (really important for a ribbon mic). Running that through my Shuttle head into a Greenboy f110 has proven to be the best combination of what I have. It did not work well with my AER Amp Three… the amp is designed to throw a lot of lows… and it was too hyped down there for the Troll. The f110 seems ideal in that the lows are very well-shaped, not boomy, and the way the cab throws the sound, there is a larger safe zone to stand in to avoid feedback. Best results were using this rig with the cab in tilt back position. I get real excited every time I use this setup on a gig, I never thought it would be possible to use a mic this way… All Hail the Mighty Troll!
 
How do you Troll users cope with noisy audiences? Since the mic has a fig 8 characteristic, one of the sensitive areas is pointed more or less straight at the audience. Therefore, I would expect the audience to be heard through the amp as well, along with the sound of the bass. I even notice this when I gig with my Schoeps hypercardioid mic; the noise of the audience is reflected via the top of my bass and picked up by the mic, and I can only assume this effect is even stronger with the Troll, since its rear lobe is directed towards the audience. Or isn't this an issue at all?

Cheers,
Vincent
 
There is a lot of signal coming from the strings as well as the top. I believe this is what makes it work so well. The other things to take into consideration is how loud you physically play, and how loud your bass and strings are. Just my 2 cents.
 
I usually cope with noisy audiences by glaring at them with evil in my eyes... Kind of a Mingus approach. If that doesn't work, I throw stuff at them. When all else fails, I start yelling at them... "STFU!!!" It usually works..... ;)


Great story here from a close friend of mine. He was watching Mingus band, playing a small club in New York, and there was group of yuppies at one of the tables, talking loudly and being a general PiTA. Apparently,
Mingus had Danny Richmond and the horns pretend to be going to the bar, but had them quietly circle back and surround the table of malcontents. At Charlie's signal they began blowing their horns and bashing the drums directly
at the folks who were making all the noise. Fun Times :laugh: :smug: :woot:.

Ric
 
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I usually cope with noisy audiences by glaring at them with evil in my eyes... Kind of a Mingus approach. If that doesn't work, I throw stuff at them. When all else fails, I start yelling at them... "STFU!!!" It usually works..... ;)

Ed,

You definately 'da man'. I'm going to base (bass) all future crowd control on your cogent remarks.
 
I've been using the Troll for three months now and am very happy it's performance. (Previous mic is/was an AMT S25B). Now I'm looking at preamps and have a line on a Summit Audio 2BA-221. The destination amp is a Walter Woods Electroacoustic Stereo, and I'm currently using Euphonic Audio VL108s (next up, F110!). Has anyone had experience with this or a similar path?
 
How do you Troll users cope with noisy audiences? Since the mic has a fig 8 characteristic, one of the sensitive areas is pointed more or less straight at the audience. Therefore, I would expect the audience to be heard through the amp as well, along with the sound of the bass. I even notice this when I gig with my Schoeps hypercardioid mic; the noise of the audience is reflected via the top of my bass and picked up by the mic, and I can only assume this effect is even stronger with the Troll, since its rear lobe is directed towards the audience. Or isn't this an issue at all?

Cheers,
Vincent
I always use the mute on my pre amp between songs. When there is no sound coming from the bass the troll can sometimes pick up the next loudest signal.
 
I always use the mute on my pre amp between songs. When there is no sound coming from the bass the troll can sometimes pick up the next loudest signal.

Bleed, is bleed, ain't it? Those same types of sounds are picked up when the bass is being played, I'd assume..unless the troll or any other mic has a special intelligence that filters out other sound sources.
 
I think it's just about whatever signal being loudest/closest being picked up. There is probably a touch of audience being picked up when playing but it's so minimal I don't hear it through my rig. When I stop playing it's sometimes quite prominent hence the mute switch.

I normally play side on to the audience so the mic picks up less house monitors.
 
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I have had such experiences also. Recently the guitarist I work has been bringing only his '37 National resonator. The club has PA btw. He mics the the guitar and his vocal and I send my mic to the FOH thru a triton fethead. I always check to make sure my channel has the HPF filter on. It's set a little high for me at 80hz but it works. I really don't need to run through any back line or monitors. It's kinda nice to just walk in and literally plug and play. Lucky almost.
 
The Troll arrived this week, i'm pairing it with my Full Circle and AI Clarus s4 head. So far i'm still in the experimenting phase but it looks (and sounds) promising ..
 

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The Troll arrived this week, i'm pairing it with my Full Circle and AI Clarus s4 head. So far i'm still in the experimenting phase but it looks (and sounds) promising ..
I've had good results with the high pass all the way up and the low and low mids all the way down. I've managed to get a fair amount of gig volume out of it this way when blended with a pick up. Great amp and a great mic!
 
I've not used the full circle but with my pick up (Ehrlund), I leave it flat unless the room is tricky. I start by getting a good rounded pickup sound. Then turn it off and dial in the mic with mostly treble and a little high mid. Slowly turn the mic up and when it reaches feedback, turn it down to a safe volume. I then turn the pick up on and use it to drive the volume. This way if you need more you are not increasing the mic volume and risking feedback.

Here's a clip of a jam using this set up. There's a fair bit of mic in there, I probably should have boosted the pick up high mid but pretty good for a rehearsal room sound.

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