Please recommend an instrument microphone for my acoustic guitars

I have 3 acoustic guitars. I've talked about them here before, in various threads: 2 Hohner dreadnaughts and a parlor sized "high string" guitar (Wechter Nashville-tuned Elite). I have 2 acoustic/electrics that handle most of my plugged in/acoustic playing live, but I want to be able to bring these others out for specific things.

I have been considering different options for my purposes. I've thought about the soundhole pup option, but I have some issues with the various models and applications. Suffice it to say that right now I'm not thinking of pickup systems but microphones.

I've played out with the Nashville a few times, and dealt with the amplification of it in different ways. In one setting, someone put some unknown mic on it, and while I wasn't totally pleased with the tone, it got the job done. I've had better results with my own mics. (Well, duh. :roll:) I've isolated a Shure SM57 on it, and I've done the old bluegrass trick of having one mic (a Shure SM58) for both voice and guitar.

So now I'm thinking that maybe my best option is to get one good mic for my acoustic guitars, just one setup for 3 guitars. Budget wise, I'm hoping to spend in the neighborhood of the cost of one good soundhole system. So I'm hoping for a good mic in the $150 price range (even less would be nice, of course), hopefully not much more than the $200 price range.

So, another Shure SM57?

I've read that the Shure Beta 57A is more sensitive than the SM57, and captures the subtle nuances of acoustic guitar well. Any comments on that?

Other brands/models? What should I be looking into?

Thanks in advance.

I could not be happier with the Martin/Fishman Thinline Gold Plus (saddle pickup and endpin jack preamp- NO controls on guitar, NO outboard preamp needed) that I have had in my Martin for almost 20 years. I get a pretty natural tone (robust, not metallic) going right into PA; and even though I have recorded using mics as the primary, the pickup recorded nicely too.

I also have heard other guitars and acoustic instruments mic'ed onstage w/ Shure Beta 57's and thought they sounded great.

Thanks for the input about the Beta57A. I had just read a catalog blurb (Sweetwater ProGear Spring 2012, Volume 85, p. 228) about it before I posted my question. Since your comment, I've been checking online reviews of it (Amazon, MF, GC). Seems to be consistently liked, which, given Shure's reputation, I'm not really surprised. This could be just the ticket, well reviewed, trustworthy (a "Shure" thing :roll:) and the price is right.

Anyone else have comments on this mic, or other recommendations?

I have a K&K pure mini in my Martin OM-1, and it works great. It sounds just like my guitar, only louder through the amp. I can definitely recommend it.

Well, thanks, but at this point I'm looking for a good mic to put in front of 3 different acoustics, as opposed to putting separate pickup systems into each one of them.

FWIW, when I was thinking along the lines of a pickup system for each guitar, I considered the K&K Pure Mini option. I don't really care for the look of a soundhole pickup permanently mounted in my guitars. And temporary mounting means putting up with that dangling cord. So the K&K option appealed to me from that under-saddle/out-of-sight aspect.

I don't know that I will go back to the idea of separate pickup systems for each guitar, but if I do, the K&K will definitely be in the running.

So, any recommendations about a mic?

I like the regular old 57 because it's not too sensitive and doesn't pick up a lot of other noise. It's got a pretty focused pattern, so it will only pick up what's right in front of it.

By the way, for the bluegrass, one-mic technique to work, you generally need a more powerful mic than a 58. A cardoid condenser mic is best, like an Audio Technica AT3035.

By the way, for the bluegrass, one-mic technique to work, you generally need a more powerful mic than a 58. A cardoid condenser mic is best, like an Audio Technica AT3035.

I can attest to the AT3035 sounding great for bluegrass lead and rhythm as well as a host of other applications, but I have never gigged with it, only recorded in the "studio", and am unsure how it would work in isolating the instrument without picking up the environmental sounds.

Hmmm...okay. I do have an SM57. The Beta 57A is billed as more sensitive than the SM57, but the claim for the former is that "its tight super cardioid pickup pattern prevents bleed from other sources." So I would think this would work for mic-ing up an acoustic guitar onstage.

Oh, and when I spoke of doing the old bluegrass trick of having one mic (a Shure SM58) for both voice and guitar, I wasn't saying that was ideal. It got the job done, to a degree, but it wasn't quite powerful enough. Thanks for pointing me to the AT3035. TinyGomery, can you speak to the question waparker4 raised about gigging with this mic?

A lot of bluegrass players use a Shure KSM27 for both instruments and vocals.

Okay, I went looking for the Shure KSM27 online, and it turns out it's no longer available. I found some for a wide range of prices on eBay, but I don't know what they went for new, so I don't know how to judge what a good price is for a used one. Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure (no pun intended :roll:) that I want to buy a used mic.

I'm using a Shure PG81 (a budget version of the SM81) which is good for acoustic. For the price you could get two and run them in stereo. The microphone body feels good and well built but the switch feels a bit cheap. Other than that they're pretty good. Check out the Shure website where you can run a comparison of the two mics. The budget version stacks up very well indeed.

http://www.shure.co.uk/products/microphones/pg81

I know Shures are the defacto standard but I just don't like the SM57 or SM58. I am a big fan of the AKG C1000. Runs off a battery or phantom power and sounds really good for the price. I know it is a studio microphone but I have gigged with it with no problems.

AKG C1000 (http://www.akg.com/site/products/powerslave,id,759,pid,759,nodeid,2,_language,EN.ht ml)

I could not be happier with the Martin/Fishman Thinline Gold Plus [I](saddle pickup and endpin jack preamp-


I'm another fan of the Fishman thinline gold plus set up.

If you want to mic up, I'd stay with the SM57 every time.

Dealing with live sound there are a lot of variables that is why a basic road worthy great sounding mic is the SM57 - It is good in most every situation. There are other variations on a theme, what comes to my mind quickly is the Audix i5... I am sure there are others.

Personally when I have to mic something (it doesn't matter what it is) a SM57 will do the job.

In studio I have had really great sound out of the Avantone CK-1 mics. These are a copy of a really great design of a small condenser mic - not really expensive and the quality is there. The CK-1 is my default acoustic guitar mic for the studio.

hope this helps,
GI

I attended a Taylor Road Show the other night. All the guitars were demo'd using a Shure PG81 through a Peavey PA, which really sounded outstanding, You could really hear the nuiances of the different body woods and styles.

Get a Beyerdynamic M-201 or perhaps a Heil PR35. Anything less is compromise,and you will buy and then buy again until you have spent even more than one of the above mics will cost you to begin with.

Unless you have no interest in a natural sound . . .

If you go with a tight directional mic on stage for your guitar you have to remain pretty still or lose sound if you move too much. The mic has to be pointed at a particular area of the guitar. Bluegrass bands often use a fairly omnidirectional condenser mic so that all players can be heard as they step toward it and they usually play for a listening crowd that remains quiet during the performance. These mics don't work well if you are playing in a bar setting because they will pick up everything. If you like to move around, you would be better off getting a pickup, but I love the sound of the acoustic through a quality mic.

I have a friend who uses a small mic that is built for guitar or other stringed instruments, Honestly I do not think that it sounds all that good. My guitar student has a Fishman Matrix installed, it really sounds natural, and it has a volume and tone knob in sound hole. Love the tone adjustment, gives you like a midscooped type sound when you turn it.
I have seen the Nashville Wechtor guitar, and have heard lots of good things about it. How do you like yours?

I use a small lavalier mic clipped on the edge of the soundhole. I need to EQ the mic but that is to be expected with most other systems IMO.

I'm using a Shure PG81 (a budget version of the SM81) which is good for acoustic. For the price you could get two and run them in stereo. The microphone body feels good and well built but the switch feels a bit cheap. Other than that they're pretty good. Check out the Shure website where you can run a comparison of the two mics. The budget version stacks up very well indeed.

http://www.shure.co.uk/products/microphones/pg81

I attended a Taylor Road Show the other night. All the guitars were demo'd using a Shure PG81 through a Peavey PA, which really sounded outstanding, You could really hear the nuiances of the different body woods and styles.


Interesting recommendation. Thanks, Bill and Sean. An economical mic is what I'm after, so this PG81 may be worth exploring. I checked out the link you provided, Sean65, and the sound clip for the acoustic guitar was indeed impressive. If I can reproduce the level of natural reproduction onstage, I'll be a happy camper.

Dealing with live sound there are a lot of variables that is why a basic road worthy great sounding mic is the SM57 - It is good in most every situation. There are other variations on a theme, what comes to my mind quickly is the Audix i5... I am sure there are others.

Personally when I have to mic something (it doesn't matter what it is) a SM57 will do the job.

In studio I have had really great sound out of the Avantone CK-1 mics. These are a copy of a really great design of a small condenser mic - not really expensive and the quality is there. The CK-1 is my default acoustic guitar mic for the studio.

hope this helps,
GI

If I'm understanding your comments/recommendations correctly, it's live sound = SM57, studio = Avantone CK-1. Well, as I have said, my purposes for this mic "quest" are for live sound, with 3 different acoustics, hence the search for one mic as opposed to 3 separate pickup systems.

And as I have also said, I do have an SM57 (and an SM58), and I have used it in live applications, with varying degrees of success, to my ears. That's why I'm thinking a mic that is a step or two up from the admittedly versatile and useful SM57 might be the way to go for me. Plus I could set up for putting a mic on one of my acoustics and my SM57 on my amp onstage.

I know Shures are the defacto standard but I just don't like the SM57 or SM58. I am a big fan of the AKG C1000. Runs off a battery or phantom power and sounds really good for the price. I know it is a studio microphone but I have gigged with it with no problems.

AKG C1000 (http://www.akg.com/site/products/powerslave,id,759,pid,759,nodeid,2,_language,EN.ht ml)

Thanks. I like my Shure SM mics just fine, but I'm just wanting to maybe bump up the quality level a notch or two for mic-ing acoustics. I've followed the link you supplied for a quick read on the C1000. Did I read it right that you can switch from cardioid to supercardioid patters? The price is within my budget parameters, so I'm going to try and search around to get a closer look and maybe a listen. When you say you've gigged it, are you talking about the application I'm looking for, the mic-ing of an acoustic guitar onstage?

Get a Beyerdynamic M-201 or perhaps a Heil PR35. Anything less is compromise,and you will buy and then buy again until you have spent even more than one of the above mics will cost you to begin with.

Unless you have no interest in a natural sound . . .

Wow! :shock:

"Here's my opinion. I'm suggesting two possibilities, and if you don't follow my advice, then you are compromising quality and have no interest in a natural sound."

So, okay...there's an opinion I can ignore. :roll:

If you go with a tight directional mic on stage for your guitar you have to remain pretty still or lose sound if you move too much. The mic has to be pointed at a particular area of the guitar. Bluegrass bands often use a fairly omnidirectional condenser mic so that all players can be heard as they step toward it and they usually play for a listening crowd that remains quiet during the performance. These mics don't work well if you are playing in a bar setting because they will pick up everything. If you like to move around, you would be better off getting a pickup, but I love the sound of the acoustic through a quality mic.

Yeah, I'm aware that with a mic I can't move around too much. I referenced doing the bluegrass trick, but that was not meant to say that that's what I'm looking for. Again, my line of thought here is putting one mic in front of any one of my 3 acoustics. I've got my SM 58 for vocals, and it's worked well for me for 11+ years.

Truth be told, I'm a much better singer than guitarist. Kinda hurts to admit that, but there it is. :oops: So I sing all the time when I perform. I do solo gigs, and of course sing everything. In my duo, I sing more than half of the leads, plus trading leads in duets, or harmonizing. I can count on one hand the number of times in the course of a gig where I don't sing at all. My point here is that I am accustomed to remaining stationary behind a mic, whether for vocals or guitar.

Oh, and I don't play in bars. At all. So my audiences aren't always what I would call quiet, but the atmosphere I'm used to is probably quieter than the din of noise generated by bar patrons.

Then again, the last gig our duo did was for an ice cream social/benefit for a private school. Bunch of parents chatting with one another and letting their kids run wild while we played and sang. Got pretty noisy. More noise than a bar gig? I suppose you'd need someone familiar with both types of gigs to answer that question.

I've worked with an SM-81, really nice mic, and certainly would do the job... never tried the PG version, good to hear others liked it too!

There was a comment on the Beyer M-201 on another thread, stating that it was as good as a really nice condensor... having never heard said mic, I'll take that with a grain of salt...

KSM-27s were $300 new (street price) so I'd stay away from anything above that... of course, for that money, an SM-81 is affordable, and more road-worthy.

A Sennheiser MD-421 is also another really good mic, it records acoustics extremely well (it really does a bunch of things well!!!) but again, not cheap...

Franc Robert

I have a K&K pure mini in my Martin OM-1, and it works great. It sounds just like my guitar, only louder through the amp. I can definitely recommend it.

+100

I bought a pair of MXL 603s small diaphragm condenser mics for recording purposes, and found using one for my brother's acoustic guitar onstage for duo gigs worked very well. Not sure how well it would work in a louder situation, but it sure did the duo stuff great!

Tim

Thanks, Tim. As I said, I'm in a duo, and that's just the kind of application I'm looking for from a mic for the stage. I'm not familiar with this mic, don't know that I've ever heard it (maybe I did and just didn't know it), so I'll have to do some checking into this one as well.

I have a friend who uses a small mic that is built for guitar or other stringed instruments, Honestly I do not think that it sounds all that good. My guitar student has a Fishman Matrix installed, it really sounds natural, and it has a volume and tone knob in sound hole. Love the tone adjustment, gives you like a midscooped type sound when you turn it.

Well, again, I'm talking about a mic for 3 acoustics that I have, rather than buying separate pickup systems for each guitar. I have a couple of acoustic/electrics, including a Breedlove AD25/SM, which is equipped with a Fishman Classic IV pickup. It's my main gigging acoustic/electric. But I'm wanting to bring the others out for performance, including the aforementioned Wechter. Speaking of which...

... I have seen the Nashville Wechtor guitar, and have heard lots of good things about it. How do you like yours?

I'm still getting acquainted with but am really digging my Nashville-tuned Wechter. It's just really different from my other acoustics, in many respects: small/parlor sized, a thin & resonant solid cedar top, and of course the "high string" effect. It just rings and chimes. Riffs that I am accustomed to playing on the first three strings have to be re-thought because of the pitch of the 3rd string. This is a good thing. This has brought new life to my acoustic playing, and given me a great new sound for some old songs.

I use a small lavalier mic clipped on the edge of the soundhole. I need to EQ the mic but that is to be expected with most other systems IMO.

Can you elaborate on this mic-ing path you have taken? Which brand/model # of mic? How do you EQ it to get optimum performance? Does it accurately reproduce the natural acoustic tones? What about feedback?

TinyGomery, can you speak to the question waparker4 raised about gigging with this mic?

Yes, he's right, the one-mic thing doesn't work in a noisy environment. For it to work, you need an omni-directional condenser, which would pick up all the noise around it too. If you're playing a noisy room, it's better to use lots of close mics with tight patterns.

Can you elaborate on this mic-ing path you have taken? Which brand/model # of mic? How do you EQ it to get optimum performance? Does it accurately reproduce the natural acoustic tones? What about feedback?

First, I went to this site: http://www.dougyoungguitar.com/pickuptests/ and listened to as many samples as possible.

I clip my lavalier on the edge of my soundhole so that the mic is inside of the guitar (the element is looking towards the strings, if you know what mean) and use a shelving EQ on the low-end starting around 125Hz and bump up the mids a bit and the topend boost to taste.

The feedback can be an issue, obviously and I try to notch that out.

You should at least try the RS lavalier the web site mentions since it's relatively low cost.

I'm biased from working in recording studios, but the best mic I have found for acoustic guitar is a AKG C-12A. A close runner up is the Audio Technica 4050. I cannot agree with the SM57/58. Usually I am not a stickler for rules when it comes to mics, but dynamic mics do not sound as good as condensers for acoustic guitar.

LGO,
So you are going to have a pickup in the guitar, plus a microphone, you might as well go with a sm57, it is an instrument mic. A mic is only going to sound so great in a gig scene, if you were recording, that is different, you don't want to be using a guitar pickup. Personally, I like a sound hole pickup, I know that isn't the sound that you are looking for. But I can't stand piezo type pickups, so brittle sounding. I play in a worship setting, I am playing with just one other guy who is playing fiddle for a banquet Saturday. I will have my soundhole pickup run thru a compressor into a Direct Box into a PA. My friend does have a fiddle pickup,but he just got this great used fiddle that is loud and has great tone, so He is just going to use a mic. He is so good, I am very happy to be playing with him, He is 82 too, also a very good guitar player. I'm singing one song and the other 2 songs are bluegrass fiddle tunes. You will find what you are looking for, I think that you have been around for while, just make sure that you get something that makes you happy. Good luck.:!:

Check out this video with 2 guys playing guitar with nice mic, it can work good

http://youtu.be/Hu0pTEYRyJg

:rolleyes:

OOPS! Missed this thread and didn't respond to your question.

"When you say you've gigged it, are you talking about the application I'm looking for, the mic-ing of an acoustic guitar onstage? "

I have used it for my guitar while singing and also in a two guitar setting playing fiddle tunes. In all cases it has been an acoustic dreadnought (both mahogany and rosewood). These gigs have been in coffehouse type settings where people are talking but it is not a bar and the volumes are not exceptionally loud.

Hope this helps!

I'll add another vote for the AKG C100S condenser mic. I play a Dobro into one and the audience really love the sound. You set it to hypercardiod response with a small plastic cap that fits over the mic capsule and it only hears what is directly in front of it. Works off a 9V battery or phantom power...and if both are connected the phantom-power takes precedence.

Great mic for acoustic guitars, Dobro, fiddle or mandolin, not expensive either. They are sold in a small carry-case which doubles as a place to store your tuner, spare picks etc during the gig. Often found on eBay, but check your local suppliers's price first!

Never in your wildest dreams could you foresee how good the Behringer 8500 mic is. Wonderful mics and they cost $29 in Canada in a nice rugged case, they probably give them away in the US. I actually like them better than my 57 and 58.

First of all, thanks for all the input. This has been helpful and informative, and I'm still processing what I will do with this information.

But my guitar situation has changed somewhat. The acoustic Wechter Nashville-tuned/"high string" guitar I had has been replaced with one that is acoustic/electric. So now I can just plug in and play when I use that guitar on stage.

The other two guitars I mentioned, the Hohners, are still just acoustics, and so I still need to mic them or something to use them in live performance. But truthfully, one of the Hohners, my beloved G-940, probably should not be taken out of the house. She is irreplaceable to me, a gift given to me by close friends 29 years ago.

I do have a more recently acquired Hohner DR550 acoustic. When I bought it, I thought I'd be using it more in live situations. But this one needs some work. The nut is seated ever so slightly off center, which impacts string spacing and therefore playing. The guitar (all solid woods, cedar top/rosewood back & sides) has great tone and sustain, really projects, but this nut/string spacing issue has kept me from bringing it out to gigs.

So for the present, at least, I'm going to hold off on looking at a microphone for live guitar mic situations. But I seriously do thank you all once again for your input. It may yet come into play (pun intended :roll:) for me, and hopefully the information in this thread may also prove useful for someone else.