What Mic do you use for electric guitars?

[bernband]

Hello!

What mic do you use for electric guitar cabinets?

I love the guitarsounds from nickelback and bon jovi!

regards,
bern

[Thumper]

I'm a big fan of the Shure KSM32s. I also like 57s, but I'm not big on their extreem top end for guitars. The Ksm's also seem to have a better midrange and tighter bottom end to me.

My vote, Ksm32/sm57 combo, with an 87 in the room. Mix and match to taste.

But above all, make sure that the damn thing sounds good in the first place. You can't make a Crate 10 watt practice amp sound like a dual rectifier.

[Henrik]

I love ribbon mics for electric guitar. Beyer M160 and Royer R-121 are serious favourites.

Best,
Henrik

[doorknocker]

I'm NOT a fan of the sounds of Bon Jovi and Nickelback but for guitar I like:

-Beyer M160 : great for Marshalls, distorted sounds, very warm but still punchy and transparent. Fantastic in combination with a Chandler TG-2.

- Shure SM7: Fast becoming my all around fave mic. Great for Fender-type amps. My Vibrolux Custom really shines with the SM7. Often I combine it with a 421 and use the Little Labs IBP to get the best sound. Sometimes only one mic sounds better in the mix but for solos the combo is often great. My fave pre for this is either the UA 2108 or the BA 312s I have.

- Though I really like SM57s, I most often use them not for close micing but as room mics. This was something that Fletcher mentioned in a blog and it's working great. The SM57 leaves out a lot of mud/low end boom that you would most likely filter out again in the mix anyway.

I'm just about to get a KM 84 and anxious to try it on guitar. Reportedly it's the main mic used to capture Bill Frisell's always inspiring sounds so I hope to use it for more textural tracks.

[Jack Pettit]

Royer 122
It's really nice on amps.

[Slipperman]

SM57

Most consistent, flexible, and compelling sounding mic "downstream" for dirt guitars in mix.

Provided you started with "proper placement".

Which(placement) is the whole deal, and something which is so grossly underestimated in difficulty... and simply NOT achieved in most of the stuff I have EVER heard in basic tracking that it is a awful, awful, joke gone horribly wrong.

I include the vast majority of my work in that grim assessment.

So I guess what I'm saying is...

The most common mic hung, and probably the BEST one to hang most of the time.... Is also the HARDEST to get placed correctly, and therefore... is ALSO the MOST DANGEROUS mic choice of all the common varieties.

Go figure.

Then again, I'm legally insane many times over from rampant misuse of LSD-25 as a lad, have been known to both pursue salmon pachyderms, AND see grizzlies behind anything bigger than a sapling.

Best regards,

SM.

[Fletcher]

I've been liking the R-122V [tube] Royer lately though there are times when my RCA BK-5 or the AEA R-92 or a 57 or a Microtech Gefell M-295 or an SM-7b or a CAD M-9 or a Brauner VMA or a Josephson C-42 or e22S or the Horch RM-2J or a Sennheiser MD-421 have found their way to making the sound perfect for the context of the recording... as always, YMMV.

Peace.

[Overdrive]

In recent projects (say about a year now) I tend to use again and again Beyer M260 ribbon mic or EV RE20. Occasionally I'll resort to C414 TLII at fair distant but not that often...

[mrbowes]

I've had great success with the following mics on my Fender Pro Jr tube amp and Fender Bassman bass amp:

SM7
SM57
Beta58
Beyer M500N

They all work really well. I usually just use whatever mic is already set up in front of the cab. Yea, I'm lazy.

[Recycled_Brains]

Shinybox 46c, 57 and/or e609.

LOVE the shinybox on heavy guitars, combined w/ the 609. i find the 609 to be rather bright so it compliments the ribbon well. sometimes just a good ol' 57 by itself does the trick just fine.

mixing in a nice omni a few feet back is great too. i really like the KSM44 for that.

-R.

[seaneldon]

anything that can take high spl and plays nicely with other microphones i decide to put on the amp.

[Revelation]

No one mentions Electro Voice, but I love their 257 I have for guitar cabs. Much mroe accurate sound compared to a SM58

[soundeq]

Neumann U89 AWSOME on ROCK guitars, especailly metal/full sounding cabs. Awsome on AC30's about 6"-1' back from the cab. For a full sounding guitar sound the U89 is pretty dope.
Not good for the old "crunchy/fuzzy" guitar sound. good old 57 or coles is the sound for that... i love 57s' older ribbon coles... get the top from the 57 and the mid, and "creamy bottom" from the coles.

[magellan]

current favs for distorted guitars: sm7b, senn md-421
fav for clean electrics: akg 414b-uls

[pan60]

i like and mostly use
re-15's and re-16's
sm57's
BLUE dragonfly's
a few others from time to time.

[Bob Ross]

Originally Posted by bernband

What mic do you use for electric guitar cabinets?

Might be easier if you asked "What mic *DON'T* you use for electric guitar cabinets?"

Seriously, electric guitar is one of the most forgiving sources in terms of what mics work well...mostly because there is (usually) no single, iconic timbre that you're trying to capture, but rather a context- and genre-specific sound which needs to compliment each unique song.

Off the top of my head I can't think of a single mic about which I would uneqvivocally & without hesitation declare "I would never use that mic for electric guitar cabinets." There are some I might shy away from unless I was looking for a particularly atypical sound (or if the mic closet was running rather bare), but none that are absolute no-no's.

[octatonic]

I've tried everything over the years- I just keep coming back to an SM57.
I get the tonal difference by changing the mic position, amp settings or style of playing.

JR

[Angelo M]

mostly

AEA R 84
Beyer M 260

Shure SM 57

and often the 57 in combination with one or the other ribbon mic

[insomnio]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

I've been liking the R-122V [tube] Royer lately though there are times when my RCA BK-5 or the AEA R-92 or a 57 or a Microtech Gefell M-295 or an SM-7b or a CAD M-9 or a Brauner VMA or a Josephson C-42 or e22S or the Horch RM-2J or a Sennheiser MD-421 have found their way to making the sound perfect for the context of the recording... as always, YMMV.

Ooh, that's nice Fletcher. So tell me, when you finish choosing the one, do you still have time to track something........?

I

[Reag1502]

WHAT ABOUT THAT AUDIX MIC? THE U5 MAYBE? I HEAR IT IS A BEEFIER SOUNDING SM57

[Jay Kahrs]

Anything BUT an SM57 if I can help it.

Oktava MC012's can be pretty nifty, Sennheiser 409/609 Silver, I've got a pair of Blue Baby Bottles that are first issue & pretty dark in a good way, not unlike an R-121 and they see a fair amount of action.

Sometimes the 421/SM57 coincident capsule thing is just perfect...especially for heavy rock gee'tar rhythm tracks...

Once in a while I'll whip out something bright like a TLM103 or AKG 451/460 if the amp is either super dark or I want to get some articulation & detail from the upper part of the spectrum, but I'm usually running them with another mic and not alone.

I'll try just about any EV or AKG dynamic mic 'cause they almost always do good or or at least interesting things...

[pan60]

Originally Posted by Reag1502

WHAT ABOUT THAT AUDIX MIC? THE U5 MAYBE? I HEAR IT IS A BEEFIER SOUNDING SM57

i like the Audix om-2, not my first choice for a electric cab.

[Fletcher]

Originally Posted by insomnio

Ooh, that's nice Fletcher. So tell me, when you finish choosing the one, do you still have time to track something........?

Absolutely.

What I use on any given sound is something that I will not use on any other sound on the recording... which means that if I've used X-Y and Z on drums then they won't get used on guitar... if I've used J or K for vocals then M gets used on guitars [or maybe bass, or possibly piano].

My point being that I try my level best not to get locked into any set patterns in the way I work so I can: A) develop application notes for the stuff M-A pimps and B) not get bored or locked into doing things by rote when I'm recording and C) [which should probably be "A" but today it ain't] capture sounds that compliment the music which I'm recording in a manner that hasn't been said 20,000 times before [which is why I don't use "N word" modules... because all these other people seem to use them like it was a cult or something].

Peace.

[rwhitney]

Though dynamics may be most common, do try a LDC at a little distance (maybe 3 feet+). The Sony C37 or C38 are great for guitar cabs, as are many others.

[jmikeperkins]

The Shure SM 57 is of course the standard. I use an old Shure SM 56 (an old 57 with a built in stand mount like they used everywhere in the 1967 movie Monterey Pop) which I prefer to the modern Mexican made SM 57 but they are not that different. Some people, like guitarist Eric Johnson, prefer these older Shure mics (like the SM 56) which say "Unidyne III" on them because they are slightly warmer and I would agree, but again its not night and and day. An SM7 is a better version of the SM57 and a great electric guitar (and sometimes vocal mic). I also love Electro Voice RE 20 mics on guitar amps because this large diaphram dynamic has a natural compression which is useful in many cases. A Sennheiser 421 is another good choice. I have always had problems with condenders on guitar amps because they pick up too much noise and I have tried Neuman KM 84, KM74 and KM 184, U87 and U77 models. The Neumann U87, U77, and U67 can be excellent room mic for guitar amps but you have to be very careful where you put them or it can just cause phase problems which can make your sound smaller and thinner. My favorite trick is to use a single mic on the amp and double track the parts, panning them hard right and left. This can take time to do, because you must play the parts exactly the same but its more than worth it. My ABSOLUTE favorite compressor to crush any electric guitar part is the old dbx 163 (no letters after it) from the 1970's. You can find these cheap sometimes. They only have one big slider that says "MORE" on them and they were made in Mass. They are unbalanced and a little noisy, but man, they have a WICKED attack and will grab an electric guitar part like nothing else and make it sound HUGE. My favorite eq to use on electric guitars are old Telefunken modules. I have a pair of W695 units and they are wonderful at adding presence to both guitar and miked bass amps. Lots of people swear ribbon mics are the ticket, the Royers are very popular, but I don't have any personal experience with them.

[stvintage]

AEA R84
Sennheise 441

[Chris Parsons]

We just got a 121 the other day. I was really blown away when I miked a Fender Twin Reverb with it (Into an API 512). What I love is how it actually sounds like the amp! If I need more bite then a 57 with get added.

[warhead]

Damn, Fletcher's got me thinking I need to pull out an M9 on guitar cabs again...it's been a while but they do smoke in that position. Come to think of it, any CAD tube mic I've ever put on a cab worked real well.

sE Electronics R1 ribbon = my go to on cabs for ribbon when figure 8 will do.

E/V ND468 = very tight mic with great response when I need room rejection.

AT804 = great for clean guitar sounds that need some smoothing over (Fender etc) and a dynamic omni will do (very dark off axis though).

War

[ozraves]

Originally Posted by warhead

sE Electronics R1 ribbon = my go to on cabs for ribbon when figure 8 will do.
War

I like the sE R1 as well. I've also been liking the Shure SM57 and the Audix i5 lately. I'd love to have an AEA R92 as well.

My fave guitar amp pre is the Great River NV series but I tried the A Designs Pacifica yesterday. Wow. It sort of gives a ribbonesque quality to dynamics.

[AmekGuy]

Originally Posted by Bob Ross

Seriously, electric guitar is one of the most forgiving sources in terms of what mics work well...mostly because there is (usually) no single, iconic timbre that you're trying to capture, but rather a context- and genre-specific sound which needs to compliment each unique song.

Excellent point.