Struggling With Electric Guitar Recording

[brandondrury]

I'm new tho this forum and I was hoping you could send me in the right direction. I not really new to home recording but I am concerning heavy, crunch guitars. The mics I have range from a Senn 421, Senn 609, SM 57, and two AKG Perception 400s. I've tried lots of different combinations but in the end I seem to get a lot of high end crap. I have since worked and tweaked my amp and pedals to get a better tone. I guess it's all a part of the learning process. I've done something similar to the Guitar Secret Weapon by taking couch cushions and surrounding the cab. I am also using a Presonus Bluetube preamp. What recommendations could you make based on the mics I have. I have two rooms in my home - one for live recording and one for mix, etc. What mic placement would you recommend. I just seem to come up with phase issues and my guitar recordings to me don't sound that good. People tell me they sound good, but I guess I'm my own worst critic.

Thanks,

Joe

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Brandon

[brandondrury]

I cover all of this is in great depth in my home recording book (which is almost finished).

The super short answer is:

1) Isolate the amp as best you can and ONLY listen to your studio monitors when it comes to micing.

2) No EQ should ever be needed. You should love the sound with zero EQ.

3) Ditch the multi-mic setup. It's causing you horrible phase problems and a single mic has captured some of the most sought after tones in the universe.

4) Focus on really tweaking the amp as you listen in your studio monitors. This is the big secret. It doesn't hurt to have an EQ guitar pedal around for this. I keep it in front of the amp, not in the effects loop.

Brandon

[joedunegan]

That is how I've been recording as of late. And thank God I don't have an FX Loop. I will be working on some recording stuff in the coming week so when I have some examples ready, I will post .