The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello steel and music lovers,

We are a bluegrass and country band from the netherlands. We have a; gitar, bass, fiddle, mandoline, banjo and dobro.

We like to play live in a traditional setup with one microphone like (Bill Monroe ect.) but we dont know what the best microphone is for this situation.

Maybe anyone one the forum can tell us what mic and wich type to buy

Thanks! Marco

http://www.myspace.com/jesusevilhighway

Welcome, Marco.

Most bands using the single microphone technique use something like the Audio Technica AT4033. Here's a good explanation and discussion of various mics used for that technique.

I was just watching the old Flatt and Scruggs television shows on Netflix, and they used a similar microphone (probably an old RCA 77A) for everyone except Josh Graves, who used a separate microphone for his Dobro®. Whether that was just for the television show or also the case in live performances, I don't know.

Search for "bluegrass single mic" for many other suggestions and discussions.

the single mic technique still lives on in the bluegrass world. i think the impetus is to get the "look" of the classic groups but it is wonderful how it really works when the group understands how to work the single mic. first and foremost...one mic...you can jack up the vol of that mic since there are no others in the field of sound. next important thing is the group actually balances themselves! you need instruments that are reasonably even vol wise and then the players balance themselves as to who is louder and softer as an ensemble and then when its solo time they just move in on the mic sort of like a virtual fader!

an old rca ribbon...the right look, but expensive!! the 4033 is not a ribbon mic, but was always described as very smooth sounding on acoustic instruments and very sensitive. i have a pair of them and have always liked the sound of them. if you are on a budget, i would at least try some of the 1" condensers from china in the $100-200 range. the studio project mics come to mind as being good candidates for this. the shure ksm27 is advertised as a "bluegrass" mic for single mic bluegrass.

i dont see how you could go wrong with any of the other workhorse studio mics...414, neumann, etc. borrow some try them out. find the magic one for your group! good luck

might want to consider some sort of contact pic up/DI on the acoustic bass. makes it a bit easier to get him heard.

You simply have to make the choice between "look" and "sound". The one mic gives you the look, but not all the instruments put out the same sound pressure, so some will suffer. For getting to sound great on stage, there is a reason that Shure SM 57's and 58's are still workhorses. They deliver.

I go to a bluegrass jam at a local tavern on Wednesday nights. They've been doing it for 30 years running. For quite few years now they've used the same CAD tube condenser mic and it sounds great. The only problem I have with it is that if there are any more than a quintet on stage at the same time, you can't hear my dobro unless I raise it up close enough to the mic, and then my playing is compromised.

We use a similar setup when I play live with another BG quintet and it works great. I still like playing through my own condenser and my Fishman/Douglas Aura preamp and Ultrasound amp is the best, though.

I play dobro in a bluegrass band and we sometimes use an AT4033 single mic setup. On many occasions, however, we find it doesn't suit the venue. If the room is too reverberant or small we often get feedback problems and have to revert to using SM58s and SM57s.

In any case, as others have suggested, the dobro can get lost in a larger band with the single mic, so I always have either a separate instrument mic on a stand for the dobro or use my own K&K Silver Bullet mounted on the coverplate.

Since I bought the Silver Bullet I've had many positive comments from people in the audience who tell me at last they can hear me playing. That's both good and bad

Chris