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[Rockabillychuck]

I am doing some home recording and am about to start using the Ashbory to get an upright or double bass sound.

I have checked out the sound clip:
http://www.largesound.com/ashborytour/sound/AshboryBYU.mp3

Does anyone know what the EQ should look like for this kind of sound? I will be plugging the Ashbory directly into the interface (DI) with no amp. This is the ball park sound I am expecting. I play upright in a psychobilly band but think that it may be easier for recording to use the Ashbory instead of putting steel strings on my upright and having to change the setup.

Cheers,
Charlie.
www.charliegreaser.com
http://www.myspace.com/caprecklosoul (the band I play bass for).

[Brock]

It's been a good chunk of years since we recorded that. I haven't had the crappy Crate B40 amp used for some time now (just as well).

The B40 (unless I'm mistaken) had a four band EQ on it, so Bob couldn't have been that tricky with it. Keep turning knobs and you'll get there.

-Brock

[Rockabillychuck]

Thanks Brock. I am messing around with this now. I will post the results. At least I know what I'm after is possible. 

Cheers,
Charlie.

[Bryan]

I'm also going for a realistic upright sound. So far, I've found a few things that are getting me going in the right direction. First, I play using either the thumb or index finger of my right hand, depending on which string I'm on, instead of the more traditional index and middle finger technique. I've found this gives me a more "acoustic" and less "electric" sound, which doesn't make much sense, but try it and you'll see what I mean. I also position my right hand up on the fretboard, near the 24th fret marker, instead of closer to the pickup.

Recording-wise, I'm still struggling to find the best way to get the Ashbory to sound how I want to hear it. Going DI, using different amp sims, compression, EQ, etc. So far the best tone I've achieved on a recording was done by recording the Ashbory DI, then reamping through a small PA system. I recorded the output of the PA with a close mic and a distant mic, and combined the two in the mix until it felt right. I think a big part of the Ashbory sounding too "electric" for my taste is that recording DI produces too much low end. Most people listening to an acoustic upright bass are not INSIDE the bass - they're a few feet away, and they're typically hearing a lot of interaction with the air in the room. This is missing from DI recording, which is why I thought sending the signal out into the room and recording the air might help. Here's the recording I'm talking about:

http://soundcloud.com/small-souls/this-is-my-fathers-world-for

I'd really like to hear what others are doing in the studio! Please post recordings and techniques used!

[Bryan]

I recently heard the song "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith, and while I am not a fan of Keith, his lowest-common-denominator thinking, or the need to celebrate disposable cups in song, I am pretty darn convinced that there's an Ashbory bass on the recording. Take a listen and see what you think:
http://youtu.be/BKZqGJONH68

In other news, I've made some progress on my Ashbory tone quest. I've found that the tone I like best so far is as follows:
Thundergut strings
Thumb/index plucking (see above posts)
onboard Volume - all way up, Treble - middle, Bass - all the way down
Tube preamp to take the edge off the attack
DI

I had been recording with the bass control at the middle position before, and I noticed when mixing it was hard to get the instrument as loud as I needed it to be without the low end being overwhelming. DI still sounds too direct, so I will probably experiment with re-amping the bass or using a good convolution reverb to get some room tone going. Will report back on that.
 

[tauzero]

One thing that Ashborys (and EUBs in general) are missing is a large wooden box. I've tried to get a bit better upright emulation by playing around with reverb - with a rapid decay you can get quite a good effect.