Mics used to mic Guitars

Woah - I've never even tried any of the vocal range on guitars (or anything other than vocals, for that matter). Should give them a go.. The 935 and 945 are incredible on vocals..


I only recently got a Sennheiser 903 - these are discontinued and Sennheiser in NZ had a few kicking around, one of which I grabbed to try out.. These things are AWESOME on guitar! I used one of those Shure drum mic clips and had the 903 clipped onto the 906's stand and had the capsules perfectly aligned - sounded awesome. In fact, I'll try get into the studio sometime in the near future to get some samples.

Someone on here (Mickrich I think?) posted a really nice clip of one of the cheapy Sennheiser vocal mic's (E815 maybe?) on a guitar cab recently and I really liked it.

Is that 903 the one that was made for snare btw? Always wanted to try either that or a 905 but they're not very common it seems!
 
Heard once a M88 Beyerdynamics on a Mesa Cab, and it truly slays. More detailed and realistic than the 57. I have to buy one. It's also terrific on a snare.

M88+TG+-+Dynamic+Hypercardioid+Microphone+for+Kick+Drum.jpg
 
I also had the surprise to record guitar tracks through a chinese copy of the SM57 that sounded far better than the original one. I thought I was getting mad, but it was true. My friend had a couple of these mics, and the second one was absolutely crap. Sometimes, sound engineering is close to experiencing supernatural events.
 
57 and 414 combo isnt too bad ive found for certain high gain stuff, 441 on cleans though if you have it, dont think it needs blended maybe just some room mics behind it,

havent tried the M88 on guitars yet its outstanding as an inside kick mic one inch from beater and off axis about 30 degrees (usually blended with re20 outside kick or Wunder 47Fet )
 
I did a power metal record recently where we recorded the rhythm guitars with a dynamic up on the grill (Sennheiser e835 for one track, Beta 57 for the other) and an AT2020 LDC about 3 or 4 feet back from the cab, phase-aligned and blended with the dynamics. Worked pretty well. The e835 is good to have around for recording harsher digital-y guitars because it has a duller top end than the 57 and a not-as-open midrange to keep it tight
 
Someone on here (Mickrich I think?) posted a really nice clip of one of the cheapy Sennheiser vocal mic's (E815 maybe?) on a guitar cab recently and I really liked it.

Is that 903 the one that was made for snare btw? Always wanted to try either that or a 905 but they're not very common it seems!

Cool man, I'll have to have a search for that.. Haven't spent much time on here in a while so would have missed it the first time around.

Yeah, as far as I'm aware the 903 was designed for snare. Since been replaced with the 905 which is smaller profile and has an inbuilt clip thing. 905 is great on snare but never tried it on guitars, if I have some time I'll try do a little shootout of the Sennheiser range on guitars, could be interesting
 
That would be awesome man! What's the 905 like on snare compared to say a 57?

I'm a huge fan of the 905 on snare top. Super transient response - so easy to get a lot of crack. Super smooth top end and a real nice openness to the mids. It has been my go-to snare mic for the better part of a year now, haven't used the 57 since (on my gigs, at least). Every time I deal with international engineers who don't have their own touring kits, I chuck it on and have never heard negative feedback.

I'm currently using the 905 on snare top and 903 on snare bottom. Only got the 903 recently and haven't actually had a chance to A/B it with the 905. Will try do a little snare mic shoot-out as well, if I find the time..
 
I've also had beefy results with the beyerdynamics on snares blended with 57s.
i'm Actually using 57+421 on guitars 9 times out of 10.

Spent 349 bucks on a new 421 which hurt my small budget, but i'm very happy with the results.
It has added a lot of dimension to guitar tracks. I always try to blend a lot of it on the mix
but certainly it not always necessary.

I also own a c414, ppl say its kind of cool on guitar content but idk...the first time i threw a 421
in there it worked right away!

The i5 is on my list :D curious about that one!
Maybe someone could post a little clip with the i5?
 
Heard once a M88 Beyerdynamics on a Mesa Cab, and it truly slays. More detailed and realistic than the 57. I have to buy one. It's also terrific on a snare.

M88+TG+-+Dynamic+Hypercardioid+Microphone+for+Kick+Drum.jpg

I always mic two seperate cabs from a stereo amp for each tracking session. I use an SM57 up close, centered on a speaker of one cab that is isolated in a sound booth. I use a little Beyerdynamic condensor (that I got in a bundle of mics I purchased a while back) on the other cab in a bigger room, placed about 18 inches away from the center of the cab. When I mix the sounds, it's amazing. I love that little Beyerdynamic mic so much that you would think I'd know the model number off the top of my head, but I don't know that I've ever even looked at it. Ha!