Acoustic Session coming up, but....

[3V17C]

My originals band have got a few acoustic radio sessions coming up, with the first one being quite short notice - next Thursday.

We've not done any acoustic stuff before as we're your standard four piece electric blues/rock type affair and therefore I don't own an acoustic bass. (Have had one in the past and was not my thing at all really) - trouble is the bandleader is fairly insistent that I use one for these sessions. I could in theory pick up a cheapy one for not too much money but at the moment I am beyond skint so don't really want to do that. I've asked around locally to see if anyone has one I could borrow but with no joy.

Now... like I say, I've not done an acoustic session before but I'm thinking what is wrong with just taking an electric bass and a small amp? They can mic it or DI it etc the same as they'd have to for an acoustic bass surely? and its a radio show so its not like anyone would know it wasn't acoustic.. and does it really matter anyway?

thoughts? comments?

cheers
C

[originalfunkbrother]

To be fair. if you played an electric bass for an acoustic set, it would lose that 'acoustic essence'. I recently watched Rumer doing an acoustic set and her bass player had an upright and an acoustic bass for the set. In terms of the feel he absolutely nailed it (there was a piano and acoustic guitar accompanying)
My 2 cents, try and borrow one off here and see how that works.

[Ed_S]

I bought a Fender Kingman to do acoustic rock gigs with. Very nice, but as soon as you've put a feedback destroyer in the soundhole and put it in the mix it might as well be a Precision, so I made the decision that henceforth it [i]will[/i] be a Precision. Sold it last Friday and won't be missing it.

[Mog]

From just having a look at your gear list I'd suggest throwing a set of flats on the Attitude and opening up that neck pup, should sound great with acoustic guitars. I also suggest you tell the band leader that the you'll use an acoustic bass if the vocalist uses a Neuman TLM67 mic.

[dunnymod]

Hello mate, Im currently on the same journey as yourself, moving to acoustic stuff (however not with the same radio success - well done!!!) and these are my findings so far:

As many people on here have said on here in the past an acoustic bass nails the look, however has too many problems sound wise, mainly feedback. I imagine in a studio session this could be controlled, however as a gigging instrument Ive had to ditch mine twice at half time of a gig. Ive tried the rubber sound hole things, moving the speakers as far away as possible, and even different strings and a sponge mute, still proved problematic.

In the end I traded my acoustic for a natural coloured Jazz bass, took the scratchplate off and added tapewound strings. My employer (the singer) was initially sceptical, however once he heard it at the gig and saw the black strings he was sold. So make what you will from that.

Good luck with the sessions

(p.s. The acoustic Bass was a Hofner HAB03)

[lettsguitars]

Yea. Load of rubbish. An electric bass is fine. Do they need a bass player for the gig? if so, what choice do they have.

[neepheid]

I've owned three acoustic bass guitars (note the past tense) and the only advantage I can find is they're good to just pick up and play by themselves, particular ones with built in tuners. On their own they can be drowned out by a single acoustic guitar, and amplifying them brings all the problems already alluded to in this thread. I won't be partaking again.

They can be beautiful of course:



But regardless of how pretty it was, it was pretty pointless and no, you can't see an acoustic bass on the radio

[lettsguitars]

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1332775462' post='1592928']
I've owned three acoustic bass guitars (note the past tense) and the only advantage I can find is they're good to just pick up and play by themselves, particular ones with built in tuners. On their own they can be drowned out by a single acoustic guitar, and amplifying them brings all the problems already alluded to in this thread. I won't be partaking again.

They can be beautiful of course:



But regardless of how pretty it was, it was pretty pointless and no, you can't see an acoustic bass on the radio
[/quote]
egg friggin zactly!

Edited March 26, 2012 by lettsguitars

[Doddy]

Considering that acoustic nowadays generally just mean 'quieter',I wouldn't be too bothered about
buying an acoustic bass guitar especially for the radio sessions. I've done a few radio things and
nobody went acoustic. I DI'd my bass,and the guitar went through a pod. It sounded great and the
band sounded like it usually did.

I remember seeing what was classed as an 'acoustic' performance on telly the other year which consisted
of vocals,two keyboards running off Macbooks and a Yamaha DTXtreme drum kit. Literally everything was
electric. Unless you are going properly acoustic,I probably wouldn't use an acoustic bass....and even then I'd go for
an Upright to get the desired volume.

[BigRedX]

This "unplugged" nonsense really gets my goat. If it was a truly acoustic session you'd be recording it with a single stereo pair of microphones and achieving the balance of instruments and vocals by positioning the players relative to the microphones.

In practice what it means is "sensitive" (read weedier) versions of the songs played on stringed instruments with hollow rather than solid bodies and everything else is pretty much the same as if you were doing a normal gig.

"Acoustic" bass guitars (with a couple of exceptions) aren't loud enough to hold their own unamplified against an acoustic guitar, so you'll need one with a pickup on it anyway. Unless you spend a lot of money it'll sound worse than an average solid bass guitar. To stay true to the "acoustic vibe" you really ought to be using an upright bass, but for a radio show this generally defeats the object as the main reason they want you to play "acoustically" is so you don't bring lots of bulky gear to the studio. Besides no one can see what you are playing on the radio.

Bring a solid bass (string with flats if you really must) and a decent DI box to be on the safe side.

[hubrad]

Play the fretless, more towards the neck pickup. Alot of 'normals' can't tell the difference between that and a double bass with a bit of EQ.
Seriously! I've had quite a few gigs through the years that started off virulently anti-electric; after a set on the fretless they were more than happy.

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1332782129' post='1593047']
This "unplugged" nonsense really gets my goat. If it was a truly acoustic session you'd be recording it with a single stereo pair of microphones and achieving the balance of instruments and vocals by positioning the players relative to the microphones.

In practice what it means is "sensitive" (read weedier) versions of the songs played on stringed instruments with hollow rather than solid bodies and everything else is pretty much the same as if you were doing a normal gig.

"Acoustic" bass guitars (with a couple of exceptions) aren't loud enough to hold their own unamplified against an acoustic guitar, so you'll need one with a pickup on it anyway. Unless you spend a lot of money it'll sound worse than an average solid bass guitar. To stay true to the "acoustic vibe" you really ought to be using an upright bass, but for a radio show this generally defeats the object as the main reason they want you to play "acoustically" is so you don't bring lots of bulky gear to the studio. Besides no one can see what you are playing on the radio.

Bring a solid bass (string with flats if you really must) and a decent DI box to be on the safe side.
[/quote]
[quote name='lettsguitars' timestamp='1332774902' post='1592918']
Yea. Load of rubbish. An electric bass is fine. Do they need a bass player for the gig? if so, what choice do they have.
[/quote]

^^^ both of these. Electric basses have been used with acoustic music since time immemorial.

Using acoustic basses was OK on MTV unplugged in 1993, but unless you're going the DB route, just use your regular electric (with flats, IMO).

[icastle]

About 75% of the stuff that I end up playing is 'acoustic' and I went down the acoustic bass route about ten years ago because I felt it was the thing to do.
Total waste of time, effort and money.

Apart from the 'look', there are no real advantages in using an acoustic bass.
It'll get drowned out as soon as it has another instrument to compete with which means you'll need to amplify it.
Then you start having to faff about to cancel the inevitable feedback.

As soon as you amplify it you may just as well have stayed with an electric bass in the first place!

Nowadays I either use an EUB or a bog standard electric bass with the bridge pickup rolled back and nobody gives a damn!

[Len_derby]

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1332790812' post='1593223']

Apart from the 'look', there are no real advantages in using an acoustic bass.

[/quote]

That's the one.
Although they are good for having around the house for off-the-cuff practise and trying things out.

I just hope the post originator's 'band leader' isn't too blinkered about this and throws his/her toys out the pram insisting on an acoustic bass.

[oggiesnr]

I play acoustic pretty well all the time and agree that most acoustic basses aren't worth the effort, the bodies are too small and they have to be plugged in to be heard. The ones that are worth having are either too expensive and/or almost impossible to find at short notice. I play a Tacoma Thunderchief (no longer made as Fender bought and shut the factory), I've played a Fylde Falstaff (no longer made) and a Martin and a Guild which may be available but at a hell of a price.

What's your drummer going to do? Unless they cut way back the whole thing is a hiding to nothing as they'll drown the lot of you.

Personally I would take your regular bass, a small amp and find a setting that sounds more natural than electric which probably means letting it ring more (don't clip) and more mid tones.

Steve

[Icarus_147]

We played a decent sized acoustic gig once, before I had my Tanglewood. I just took my Ibanez along, used the neck pickup and rolled the tone back off a bit, and it worked fine. There was a guy there taking pictures and, to be honest, it didn't even look that out of place.

[rushbo]

The people who object loudest to an evil, filthy electric Bass played alongside their lovely acoustic instruments tend to be people who are more concerned with image than sound. If you're doing a live radio session, the engineer is less likely to have a coronary if you turn up with a good sounded 'leccy Bass and amp than if you appeared with an awful, cheap upright or a next to inaudible acoustic Bass. And this comes from someone with a perfectly lovely acoustic Bass. If you have the luxury of time to eq it and balance mics correctly with an acoustic Bass, then it's an option. But you won't, so it isn't.

If you can blag a fretless for the recording, that can sometimes appease the naysayers. I picked up an Ashbory recently for not a lot of money (from this very forum, natch) and that's what I'm taking out from now on for those sensitive moments when 20th century instruments don't appear to cut the mustard.