Your methods for placing mics on guitar cabs?

[Jetblack]

What are peoples different methods? I still find the sweetspot with facing the amp from a few inches and listening while holding the guitar cable in my hand to get a hum & buzz.

[kevinc]

I chuck on some headphones and just look around for the spot where it sounds good.

Somtimes it`s the spot where everything seems to open up and other times I`m deliberatley looking for something other than that based on the song and the sound.

[warhead]

Isolation headphones help me with placement, at medium-ish volumes I'm not scared to get down by the cab for a second or so to do quick speaker comparisons...but not longer than a sec!

War

[neve1073]

If I'm really motivated I'll put on some etymotic inner ear phones and hunt around for the sweet spots with either a 121 or a 57.

[aidyhall]

I always find that trying to find the sweet spot while in the room with a cranked cab, I feel the sound more than hear it, and it always sounds different back in the room. If you're going for that maximum top-end phase-flip-one-mic-and-then-unflip idea, it almost always ends up with both mics dead centre to the cone, which is not always the most representative sound.

Nowadays I'll be in the booth with the guitarist getting the sound right coming out of the amp, then we'll go back into the control room and get somebody else to move the mics with protective hearing on while you listen in the control room (assistant, under-utilized band member, anybody you don't want in the control room ....)

[7rojo7]

It just happened that what usually works for me, an SM57, N90 or PL80 on the cone and a JV74 or Brauner PhantomV a footandahalf back from the cab, didn't work. The JV74 was enough and much clearer for this gtr

[Mozart]

Any picture?

[DigitMus]

Hmm... I guess I'm "odd man out" with getting guitar sounds. I start with a great guitarist with a great rig in a fairly 'dead' spot in the big (live end/dead end) room. Move him and the rig around until the expression on his face says he's happy. Put a nice condenser as close as is reasonable to where his head is. Add a close ribbon (with an IBP) if necessary (i.e. as a suppliment if more 'intimacy' is called for by the track).

Scott

[Matej]

Obviously it's different for different kinds of music. If it's rock/metal thing, nothing really beats a 57 kissing the grill at the sweetspot, a little off axis. But if it's a jazz thing or something softer you're better off with a large condenser a couple of inches away and some room mics if you have a decent room. You need to screw around a bit to get the phases right.

[shapemod]

I tried the white noise trick, didn't worked for me. What I rather do is:(I have to play and record guitars at the same time)
Reamping my guitar, set the amp to a pretty low volume, put a closed headphone on and search for the sweet spot with the mic. Sweet spot of the speaker seem to be quite the same at different volumes. But I don't record that loud.

[mltamisin]

With guitars, I usually place mic on the outer perimeter of the speaker facing straight and not angled. The cone usually seems too bright to me. Occasionally, I'll move it around to check out the sounds. I do a speaker check and find the best sounding speaker too. Also, I may place a rug under the mic to avoid floor reflections.