^^^Great example above. Players like NHØP and Brian Bromberg play funk lines beautifully on DB from exactly the opposite perspective than I described; they play light and very precise and with amazing rhythmic precision, and both have a lighter/lower setup than usual and use either a magnetic pickup or high tech close-miking to get that very solid sound. I love them both!
But without a magnetic pickup, I wouldn't want to try that live because it would be a nightmare to get any volume without feedback. I know Niels used to carry a special little briefcase preamp for his magnetic pickup, and Brian has at least 4 pickups on his bass and often uses several of them in conjunction with a mic to get something approaching his studio sound live:
Hey Chris, I hope you are doing well man? Just to chime in....for the record I do not use a magnetic pickup on my upright bass, never have. I have three pickups on my bass plus a mic. I always blend a pickup with the mic to try and get some air in the sound. All three pickups sound different, so depending on the music, direction, or volume needed I will use the according pickup. Actually any day now I should be getting a pickup/bridge prototype in the mail that I have been working on for awhile that could quite possibly revolutionize acoustic bass amplification. Fingers crossed!
Believe it or not my studio sound on my recordings is either a combination of two analog mics and tube mic pre's and no pickups, or two digital mics, no mic pre's, no EQ, no analog signal path and no pickups as in how I recorded my "Hands" solo acoustic bass CD. In fact I can't remember that last time I used a pickup on my bass on a recording.
Also, I play a lot harder then people think, that is why I have mineral deposits on my tendons and have been fighting tendonitis since my early 20's. It just looks like I don't play hard as I have spent a lifetime learning how to play acoustic bass with finesse and play the instrument the way my particular instrument wants to be played instead of me trying to play the bass I want it to be played without listening to what the instrument is telling me. That is also why I never practice my bass amplified, never. I only play my bass acoustically as your sound comes from your hands and the relationship you have with your bass. With that said acoustic bass amplification is one of the hardest things to achieve. There are some good pickups out there, but all of them have pieces of the equation missing. To this day to the best of my awareness which might be not very broad these days there still is no single upright bass pickup that sounds acoustic, clear, powerful, no feedback at high volumes, clarity, focus, round, big fat bottom, on and on. Some do some of those but I am not aware of a pickup that does all of them. That is why we are trying to fix that!
We should all play the music we want to play on any instrument we want to play it on, we just have to try and find the right pickup that works with our specific bass and also works for the style of music that we want to play. Very tall order but a very fun and rewarding journey to figure it out!
