Muddy electric guitar recordings

Hi All,

Mostly I'm over on the Home Depot talking about building guitars, but I'm now trying to make some decent recordings of the guitars I've built, and have some problems. Namely, getting the recording to open up. I've done a bunch of research and upgrading but still am getting unsatisfying results so maybe someone can help

Currently I'm using an Apogee Duet into Garage Band (also went into Audacity with same results). I'm micing my amp (Suhr Badger 18) w/ an SM58 with the bulb-screen taken off, and the mic placed about 1" just off the center of the speaker. I've played with all the levels on the duet and garageband, mic placements, etc. and still get pretty much the same results; great tone out of the amp in the room, but low quality tone on the recording. To be honest, recording with just my iPhone mic sounds better! Before I got the Duet I thought it was just a pre-amp issue, but now I'm not sure anymore.

Suggestions? Questions? I'm about to pull my hair out (what's left of it anyway.:lol:)

I'm micing my amp (Suhr Badger 18) w/ an SM58 with the bulb-screen taken off, and the mic placed about 1" just off the center of the speaker.



A couple things, any chance you boogered your 58 when disassembling it? I don't think there is much if anything to be gained by removing the pop filter.

Also, at 1" from the speaker dome, you are getting a fair amount of proximity effect (bass boost) from the mic that your ears are not hearing in the room. Try moving the mic further (maybe up to 4"? EXPERIMENT) from the speaker, and move it from the center out closer to the surround, maybe an inch or two from the outside edge of the cone.

I have made a career out of changing microphones when they don't suit me.

There is only so much a 58 can do for you.
There is no Golden rule that applies to everybody, but moving the Mic you do have around is a good start.

You may have to do the unthinkable: change the tone settings on your amp to compensate for the characteristics of your Mic.
Personally, I get my best tone (for recording purposes) using the Neck Pick-up. I almost never use the Bridge pick-up.

Recording can turn in to a suckers game very quickly:
Nice Mic needs nice Mic stand needs nice Mic Cord needs nice Mic Pre-amp...

~ ST

The rule of thumb is this: Take your hand and put your fingers & thumb together as if your going to slap someone. Put the edge of your hand next to the speaker grill and put the mic up against the other edge. Use this as your base line.
If you have another mic place it a few feet away, the farther the better, on the other side of the room. Get a balance of both mics. Move the first mic till you find the sweet spot, use a pair of headphones when you do it. Set your amps Eq and volume to taste. Record a minute or two of you playing. Loop that recording and adjust both mice. It make take a while but you want to get it to sound as close to the live sound as possible. If you want to get really fancy, try pointing the second mic towards the opposing wall from the amp.

Thanks for the posts.

I think I was getting too much of a bass boost like you said. First I checked it w/ vocal and then acoustic guitar and both sounded good. Especially the vocal - very clear and crisp. Miced the amp again and went into the GB eq and pulled it down about -9db in the 250-500kz range. This helped and cleaned it up a bunch. I can see how recording is a lot like gambling; at no point do I feel satisfied. Time to step away from the table.

For me, it's never paid to track a guitar amp with the bass knob over 2 ... maybe 3 if it's the bridge pickup. Those mellow low frequencies that fill up a room don't record well at all. Glad you got a handle on it ... EQ is your friend!