bass cabinet mics - any suggestions?

[scribe]

Hey there,
just wondering what mics people like on their bass cabinets, if any?

cheers

[brandondrury]

I like to stack as much junk on top of them as possible. Sometimes books. Sometimes bags of chips with only crumbs left.

Okay, I'm kidding. Are we talking about for live use or for studio use?

Brandon

[scribe]

Yeah gotta admit, the top of my bass amp gets a bit sticky. Im talking mainly for recording............. Cheers

[brandondrury]

I haven't recorded a bass cabinet in at least 2 years. I've been 100% content with recording bass DI. Ironically, I'm the exact opposite with electric guitars.

Brandon

[scribe]

Hey, Yeah I havent recorded my own bass through a cabinet either for a while, The sans amp is all I need, but I am recording a band soon and the bass player has spent s*** loads on a new ampeg rig and is hell bent on having it micd up, in the past I have used my shure kik drum mic, 58's, rhode valve ntk2 all with varying results. Interested to hear what others have used or continue to use or avoid.
As a side note I use my sans amp bass driver for many things. I had a classical guitar going through it last week with a 57 as well.

[brandondrury]

Alright, we'll make this bass guy feel special for blowing huge money.

I've used AT 4050s, 57s, 421s, Royer R121, etc all with pretty much the same result. I just don't like the sound of micing up bass cabinets most of time. There are exceptions, but the big / mean bass tone is achieved with DI for me.

Brandon

[bubba]

Years ago, I used to do a lot of sessions with a bass player that had a Gibson Les Paul bass. It had a LoZ output with an xlr connector. He played right in the control room. Bass sounded great.

Peace: bubba

[Eric Welch]

I recently have been using a Heil PR 40 for micing electric bass cabs in the studio. It handles the high spl's of the cabs well and has very articulate highs. I still always run a pure DI signal when micing cabs. This way if the cab/mic tone doen't fit perfect to the track I can fall back to it, and even reamp if needed.

Cheers,
Eric

[brandondrury]

How are you liking the Heil PR 40. People seam to really like them. I've considered picking one up.

Brandon

[Eric Welch]

I have become a big fan of the PR 40. It is a great dynamic workhorse. I find myself reaching for it over my re20 recently. It sounds great on kick, bass, rock vocals, and amazing on an upright bass when tracking a jazz trio live. If you are in the market for a high spl dynamic it is worth taking a hard look at.
Cheers
Eric