I usually go direct and mic the cabinet as well. I've been using a Beta52 because otherwise it would just sit in my cabinet. The main tone comes from the processing I use on the bass.
I usually end up using a few different free plug-in's to get the bass sound I like. One is a compressor called BLOCKFISH that can be downloaded at digitalfishphones.com along with a number of other quality free plug-ins.
The other is a effect called Cyanide 2.0 found here:
http://bram.smartelectronix.com/
It's an interesting waveshaper that I use to add some fuzz. It has a mix knob which is great for automating to get control the amount of fuzz on the track.