Re: OT: Mike for Recording Guitar Amp

[richard sales <richard@glasswing.com>]

I've always used an old (black) Sennheiser 421.  You can fiddle with the pad on it for different tone.  And, like the SM57, you can also use it as a jack hammer in a pinch! I use that into a Daking Mic Pre IV. Paul Smith recommended the Daking.

Having said that I haven't tried the Royer 121 that lots of guys use.  I bet it sounds really good. 

Also fun to put a mic on the front and back of cabinet if open cabinet.  Have to watch for phase issues.  I used a Neumann TLM103 on the back and the Sennheiser on the front and you can sort of tune your sound from dark (back) to brighter (front) using this method.  Didn't use this on the latest record, though.  

Can't go wrong with 57s though.  Many big hit records have been made with them on guitar cabinets. 

Most important, have fun!

richard sales

www.glasswing.com

www.richardsales.com

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On Nov 26, 2009, at 1:28 AM, andy butler wrote:

Depends where you want to use it.
...and the effect you wanna get.

The SM57 has been mentioned as it's often used in studios
for that purpose, and it's cheap. It'll get the job done.
...but it has drawbacks
1) Shure mics are inconsistent to an extent that's unusual in
 a mic considered to be a standard. There's a lot of variation
  in how they sound. (to be fair, part of that's down to their
  reputation for robustness...they tend not to get looked after, then they degrade)
2) A mic that colors the sound so considerably works best if it's only used for
 one or two elements in your final mix.
3) It's not a good option as an all round mic, in case you wanted to
  use it other stuff too.
4) If you want to try the mic at a further distance from the amp
 to capture ambience, and get an alternative tone for recording, then
 a less colored mic would be better.

Of course, none of those drawbacks is necessarily a deal breaker.

An alternative would be a decent small diaphragm condenser, something
by Rode, Octava, Beyer Dynamic. That would give you a more accurate
representation of the amp (not necessarily what you want), and
could be also be used for recording more or less anything.

Make sure you spend time finding the best mic placement, that
makes all the difference. Distance, position and angle.
My favourite is to use a condenser about an inch away on the edge of the speaker cone.

andy butler



Paul Richards wrote:

Hello:

In the past, I've always had guitar amps with some output capability to route the signal to a looper, recording device, et al. I'm about to get a small wattage Marshall (Class5 -  5W) with no output feature which means I will have to mike it up. Any suggestions on a reasonably priced microphone? THX!

Regards, Paul