Me. MBOL is something that i´m not looking for, it doesn´t exist. Going with a mic very close to the top or f-hole of the bass has nothing to do with the instruments sound in the audience. And that´s just the bass by itself, most bassplayers work together with other musicians in different rooms and with different kinds of music!
I love playing unamplified, but most of the time, it doesn´t work. Next step up is using a mic, but you have to know the room and the soundguys, sometimes it works, sometimes not. That´s why i play most of the time amplified, using two systems: a smaller one, dpa d:vote plus wilson k1, mixed with the headway and amplified with the powered monitor i can find on stage or one of my qsc´s k8. A bigger one, same mic and pickup, mixed and amplified with the very fine AER basic performer. The Tonedexter i used to use for a while takes away too much pressure and power, it sounds very good in small settings, but then i can go mic only, and it sounds very unnaturally and unpunchy in louder settings where i prefer the pickup.
All that said, i have to say: the really most important part of the chain is you and your bass. I own different ones and only one of them can be amplified in the uncomplicated way i described. I´s an old instrument, very even sounding, big low end, no deadspots or wulfs, it doesn´t care about the wheather and so on. Other instruments i use are way better sounding acoustically, very good for classical music, but can never reach the amplified qualities of that 80 years old german 7/8 monster. That´s what i learned over the decades: if you´re unable to get a smooth amplified sound out of the bass even with the most expensive stuff, go for another bass. There are instruments out there that need even with a cheap piezo in the bridge no equalizing, no compressing, nothing. Go for such an instrument, you will save lots of money!!
