What do I do with an acoustic bass?

I love the challenge of recording instruments that I'm not used to recording. Yesterday, at a tracking session for John Gillespie, I got my first opportunity to record an acoustic bass.

Even with acoustic music, I typically prefer an electric bass. The electric bass is a known quantity--fairly easy to record well. John is working on a 19 song album at my studio. He thought, and I agreed, that it would be wise to change up the bass tone a bit from song to song. An acoustic bass seemed like a good option for five of the songs.

An acoustic bass is a different beast all together. All of the rules apply for acoustic guitar, except there's the issue of it being a lower octave and more air being displaced by the lower waves. The go-to mic for this kind of thing is a condenser mic. Most engineers would lobby for putting the mic about a foot away from the instrument. I didn't do this.

I took a line signal from the instrument's pickup. The direct line from this acoustic bass sounded a bit clacky, so I rolled off a considerable amount of highs. Still, I wasn't getting the low that I wanted from the direct line. Rather than boost a bunch of lows on the EQ, I reached for a dynamic floor tom mic. I put the mic as close to the sound hole as I could. I was very pleased with the result. The lows are full and resonant and I didn't have to compress or EQ at all. That's what I shoot for.