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Electric Bass Guitar
The range of an electric bass can be between 35 Hz up to harmonics of 10,000 Hz, depending on the number of strings. Some modern luthiers have been custom making 9 and 10 string basses for some players. It stands to reason that these new instruments are going to have an incredibly wide frequency range and may require some new recording tricks. Also, new active electronics are coming out all the time, pushing the frequency range of the high harmonic overtones ever higher. Some players may even have a pre-eqed signal, with a mix of magnetic pickups and peizo pickups. Pickup companies like Bartolini are known for their wide range of active pickup controls. In a lot of situations, the bass guitar amp isn't actually miked. It's common for engineers to use a really high quality mic preamp and run the bass directly in, compressing and eqing the direct signal to get the desired sound. However, one can also mike the cabinet speakers in much the same way as an electric guitar, experimenting with different mics to get the right sound. Some bass drum and bass guitar mics are designed with a frequency response curve to compensate for eq problems inherent in recording bass. If the bass player has a very high quality, low noise rig you may wish to eq everything in the head, and use different mikes on different speakers for different frequency pickups. Some companies like Accugroove have come out with bass cabinets that have different sizes of speakers built into the same cabinet, with dividers built into the cabinet to seperate the speakers' air movement. A lot of the players using multi-stringed(6 or more) basses use these cabinets, as the frequency range they are able to produce is much broader and more accurate. In this case, you may wish to mic the smaller 6 inch speaker with a normal vocal, or high quality instrument mic, while retaining the bass mic on the larger 10, 12, or 15 inch speaker. A lot of engineers even use a direct signal mixed with a miked speaker cabinet. The direct signal will allow you to get more of the high frequency range without the hiss associated with bass cabinet tweeters. As with all miking situations, your ears are the best guide.