Big guitar amps or small guitar amps in the studio

[brandondrury]

Today I recorded a bar rock type of band. There were 3 guitar players and not one of them had anything bigger than a 10" speaker. The recording turned out great. I was just wondering if most of you guys had better luck with recording 4x12 cabinets or better luck recording the little amps.

From what I hear, it's more and more popular to use small amps in the studio.

Brandon

[jams]

.from what i hear the main thing with the 412 100 watters are the room is not the right size to handle all of that power so you get a different sound.smaller amps sound good with what size rooms most poeple have.not to turn this into a guitar fort post,i was wondering if recycled newspaper packages from home depot would work like roxul.im going to try it to isolate my cabinet.

[P.P.T.]

I thought small amps in the studio have always been popular.

Though, I don't know if there are any small dual/triple rectifier amps so I don't know about those guys.

[mindundermatter]

It only took 4 years for someone to reply! LOL.

I think it depends on the material. If I'm doing metal, it's definitely gotta be the 4x10 cab. If I'm doing southern rock or blues, a simple 2x10 or even 1x12 (preferably open-back) will do the trick just fine. But that's just me.

[garww]

My Old Princeton was pretty sweet. I sometimes used a old transistor stereo unit (really cheap) for a preamp - for the transistor saturation effects. I also used a Wollensak reel to reel deck for it tube saturation.

Having said that I really like 4x10, too.

[barters]

Personally I leave it somewhat in the hands of the artist as both can be miked up effectively....but I've only been close micing.

When the shoe is on the other foot and I'm the artist being recorded I found it very hard to "get into" what I was playing without being fully immersed in the sound of my amp.

More volume, gave more feeling which made me play better. This before metnioning any guitar tones which rely on feedback etc.

But I'm biased......I had a 4x12, sold it got a Mesa Mark 2, sold that within 3 months and got a ENGL powerball...but found teh best of both worlds with a 2x12 bogner cab. gyeah

[haveigonemental]

I prefer small to medium sized amps. Part of that comes from the fact that Metallica always has ridiculous tone on their albums(especially Load) and at least since they started working with Bob Rock they tended to use smaller setups when recording. So yah, Bob Rock says yes and I therefore agree.

And yes, I packed the ceiling in my basement with the recycled cotton and newspaper insulation from Home Depot and covered it with burlap and it works excellent. Just keep in mind, that shit it dusty, I looked like a ghost every day after I got done working with it. Wear a good dust mask. I don't know if I would use it to isolate a guitar cab though, Rockboard 60 is prolly your best choice. Just find a local supplier and you can get it dirt cheap(they may have to special order), this is one of those situations where buying online will cost you more.

[tuesday]

I've done both...it kind of depends on the room and your other equipment I think, but when I used my tiny practice amp to record, I found that I could crank it up to its threshold of awesomeness a lot easier than with the big amp, because it would take so much more to get the big amp up there...i.e., you get it to where the amp sounds "loud" without it having to be superloud, which can be important based on your space and equipment. Also, Brian May (Queen) has been using a tiny practice amp to get his awesome tone forever, and I hear Queens of the Stone Age use practice amps too...

[jdbunda]

I was recently in a friend's home studio, and he had a box that connected to his amp outputs that split the output between the 12" speaker and a monster heat sink. This allows him to get tube-saturation distortion with his high-power amp at much lower volume levels. It made sense to me, but I didn't get the chance to listen to it. Anyone get good results with this approach?

By the way, I seem to recall reading that Frank Zappa recorded most of his early stuff through a pignose.

[root]

I've been using an old Tele & Les Paul Junior thru a Blackface Princeton Reverb w/ volume @ 6 or 7 for slightly over driven rhythm guitar parts and a close mic'd Silverface Champ cranked all the way for single line stuff.
A Unidyne SM57 and older MD421 are 2 inches on center and almost touching the grill into separate tracks panned hard left & not so hard right.
It'll do for this week but maybe not next week, if you know what I mean.