Tips & Tricks

Unbelievable but True Recording Technique

Here is a great studio tip for recording electric guitar.

Usually when I record guitar, I do it three ways:

Run a line direct from the guitar into the board for a good dry sound that I can play around with later.

Take the signal directly out of the guitar amp into the board.

Mic the amp speaker both close up to get the speaker sound and far away to get the room sound.

But check this out... Place a good condenser mic, like an AKG C 3000 or something like it, very close to your strings, but far enough away so that your picking hand won't hit it. This mic will pick up the sound of the pick hitting the strings as well as some of the resonance coming from the guitar body. It is a very bright and different sound than the first three techniques, and you get some of the nice click of the pick hitting the strings. Blend this signal in small doses with the other signals to brighten up the overall sound, and to get a little bit of percussive attack. It makes an amazing difference.

But nobody will believe you if you tell them that's how you did it!