Recording a Fender Mustang

nickdahammer · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2003 12:46 pm Post subject: Recording a Fender Mustang

Hello all-

I am working on some original stuff with a friend of mine, who plays a Fender Mustang. I tried running his signal straight into my Yamaha AW16G with no amp or box and got a very thin sound. However, when I plugged my crappy old Harmony bass (full scale) in the same way I got something that sounded alot closer to what a bass is supposed to sound like.

Is the thin sound from the Fender the result of the short neck, or the pickups, or ....? We would like to avoid having to buy another bass and/or pod/direct box. Would a 'normal' scale make a big difference? If so, is there a way to compensate for the 3/4 scale?

Thanks

Slyder · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 8:31 pm Post subject:

When you say thin do you mean the sound wasn't very rich and full or do you mean it didn't have enough volume.

I'm guessing that you mean it didn't have enough volume. This is caused by the bass not having enough signal. I'll also assume that the bass is an older model. Alot of basses don't tend to have enough power to record direct the way your doing it. Most of the time a bass is recorded direct using a preamp. Sansamp makes a real top of the line deal, but it's just as expensive as a POD. If you're really serious about trying to get a good recording and you don't want to use an amp you probably want to invest in a cheap rackmounted preamp. You can get a decent ART on ebay for about a 100 bucks or so. This will help with any instrument you try to record direct as well as any mic you use for acoustic instruments and vocals.
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scorpionldr · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2003 5:06 am Post subject:

well if there's one thing i know, there's you need an amp. i use a POS tascam four track recorder, and when i want a clean signal, i just line out from my amp and use it's EQ into the tascam. the result of the thin sound is partially probably too much input from the instrument and the tone the pickups are at. make it simple on yourself and get an amp and use it's line out, its gona sound cleaner

Dark Lord Vigo · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 6:09 am Post subject: Recording a Mustang

Check contacts/solder/components on the guitar, but it may just be a passive and therfore quiet guitar.

My guitarist has a Gordon Smith Graf (Small Brit Make) and a Fender Twin. We were double tracking him - mic'ed through a condenser & direct. The Direct bit was experiencing the same problem.

You don't need to splash out on a huge amp. We got round the problem by buying a £25 ($41.74) Behringer DI100 box (Direct Inject Box). It operates offa battery or phntom power supplied by your desk. This amplified the signal to the desk and had the added bonus of gatting rid of a load of hiss that his pedals were creating.

You may not even have to do this though, read your manuals and make sure you equipment doesn't have any sort of HI Z channel or preamp built in.

The behringer is one of the cheapest and most useful units in my studio. They do a new model now for the same price which has built in modelling, but there will be tons of similar units available.

They also split the signal so you can double track and pan with ease Smile

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Dark Lord Vigo · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 6:14 am Post subject: P.S.

I'm of the thinking that your yamaha should have a Hi Z input as I was looking at one a few models up in the same family that was so equipped.
Have a good read of your documentation, you should have a bit about direct guitar recording.
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Dark Lord Vigo · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 6:25 am Post subject: Got it

Right, I've had a look at the specs on Yamaha's website. Your jack number 8 is an unbalanced phono which can accept a direct input from guitars & basses (Hi Z channel). This will act as a direct inject box for you. There may be a button you have to push/flip to switch it from a normal input to Hi Z. Once you get the signal in and preamped you have a nice selection of amp/speaker models built in plus you can gate/envelope the signal to get the sound to the level you want.

That's a cool little desk Smile

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Dark Lord Vigo · Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 6:27 am Post subject: Recording a Mustang

Check contacts/solder/components on the guitar, but it may just be a passive and therfore quiet guitar.

My guitarist has a Gordon Smith Graf (Small Brit Make) and a Fender Twin. We were double tracking him - mic'ed through a condenser & direct. The Direct bit was experiencing the same problem.

You don't need to splash out on a huge amp. We got round the problem by buying a £25 ($41.74) Behringer DI100 box (Direct Inject Box). It operates offa battery or phntom power supplied by your desk. This amplified the signal to the desk and had the added bonus of gatting rid of a load of hiss that his pedals were creating.

You may not even have to do this though, read your manuals and make sure you equipment doesn't have any sort of HI Z channel or preamp built in.

The behringer is one of the cheapest and most useful units in my studio. They do a new model now for the same price which has built in modelling, but there will be tons of similar units available.

They also split the signal so you can double track and pan with ease Smile

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