Acoustic guitar mic'ing techniques

[tolley1466]

Once again I need the knowledge of the blue roomers :)

 

I'm getting more and more musicians at gigs with acoustic guitars without a pick up and I'm wondering what the best mic position to get the best sound and also the most volume from the guitar?

[paulears]

Most volume is easy, the soundhole. It will also sound murky and probably give you weird resonance problems and maybe feedback issues too - but if volume is your only real need, then this point is the loudest. Probably a bit more towards the neck will give a nicer sound.

 

The trouble with acoustic guitars is that unless the guitarist is also singing, the blighters move around so much - left right, back and forth, that the sound changes so much. I've found that fewer and fewer people have guitars without some form of pickup. What would really be good for steel strung guitars are those old pickups that simply clip across the sound hole. They were popular in the 70s, but I've not seen them for a while. These things could be a cheap and useful alternative, and don't damage the guitar, but are a bit fiddly to fit quickly. I've heard some of these too, although they sounded a bit 'hollow'. Both are going to be better than a mic if you want volume.

[Simon Lewis]

Canford have these (rather oversized) clamps that promise not to damage the guitar, and allow the mic to be carefully positioned.

[StevieR]

One other problem I find with mics is that if the on-stage levels are high, getting sufficient gain before feedback is problematic. Our solutions is to use one of these stick-on transducers - Schertler DYN-G

 

Steve

[wil_hob]

Once again I need the knowledge of the blue roomers ;)

 

I'm getting more and more musicians at gigs with acoustic guitars without a pick up and I'm wondering what the best mic position to get the best sound and also the most volume from the guitar?

 

 

I tend to use a Rode NT3, however they can sound a little muddy with nylon string guitars. They have a hypercadioid pattern and I find I get higher gain before feedback than using an SM57.

 

W.

[stevejones]

If you want to go mad get a Neuman 184 - Pretty much a standard and just point it at twhere the neck joins the body,

 

Rhode do some cheaper alternatives that for live use would sound probably the same

 

If it's a wooden floor stage then you can get away with pointing slightly down to separate the vox and get some high end bounce reflections

 

For open Mic's etc I often find theres someone happy to leave their guitar with a pickup in it up for other players also makes life much easier!

 

Just my 2c

 

Steve