Recording - August 2013 - 34

By Joe Albano
Many of the same overall issues discussed in Part 1 (July
2013) with regards to recording electric guitars and amplifiers come up again when recording acoustic guitars. But,
of course, now the devil is to be found in a different set of
details. Without the amp factored in, the art of capturing
the sound of an acoustic is (almost) all about mic technique. An electric guitar amp’s speaker projects sound primarily forward, while the body of an acoustic guitar resonates sound out in all directions, with different tonalities
to be found at different angles. This also means that the
contribution of the room (ambience) is more critical to
achieving a natural quality in an acoustic guitar recording.
Additionally, the bandwidth of the acoustic is wider,
with typically an octave more of high-frequencies (harmonics and overtones) than the more limited range of the
electric guitar’s pickup and amp. And the volume of an
acoustic guitar is typically much lower than even a small
amp, making issues of isolation more critical in some situations. As a result of the differences, mic choice and
placement will vary from the usual approaches taken for
electric, and that’s where I’ll start.
Pick your poison
You may remember that one of the most popular mics
for recording a guitar amp is the Shure SM57, a dynamic cardioid (see the brief mic primer in the previous article,
or the more detailed material on mics up on recording
mag.com); the ‘57 imparts a nice presence to the sound
of an electric guitar through an amp. This mic (or similar
models) could also be used on acoustic (in a pinch, or on
stage), but a dynamic would no longer be the first choice
here. The extended bandwidth—the presence of strong
higher frequencies—from an acoustic guitar calls for mics
with both a more extended high-end response, and
greater clarity. The go-to choice for acoustic guitar is usually a studio-grade condenser mic, which brings those
qualities to the table. Ribbon mics can also offer good clarity for acoustic recordings, although with a warmer overall
balance, and would be an alternative.
There is no shortage of good condenser mics available for
acoustic guitar recording, at every price point from around
a hundred to a few thousand dollars. Both large-diaphragm
and small- diaphragm condensers are employed. Some of
the traditional favorites include “pencil” mics (thin smalldiaphragm models) like the AKG C450 Series, the AudioTechnica AT4051, and the Neumann KM Series. I’ve also
often used a Neumann U87, AKG C414, or AudioTechnica AT4033, all large-diaphragm side-address models. If you go to recordingmag.com/videos and find the
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RECORDING August 2013

Figure 1. These mics from Shure, Blue, DPA, and Lewitt are all suitable for
acoustic guitar recording, and you can hear them demonstrated in our videos.

Figure 2. The classic placement: 12 inches away, aimed at the 12th fret. The
mic here is a side-address large-diaphragm condenser, the affordable and
popular MXL 2001.

“Recording Guitar: Acoustic” section you’ll see several other makes and models in the five video demos there—in particular, check out Acoustic Guitar
video Part 2 for a comparison of various mics (and see Figure 1 for a teaser
of some of the featured models). I’ll refer to those videos periodically through
this article—they’ll provide picture and sound to complement the descriptions
in the text, and the figures in this article are all taken from them.
Pick your spot
It’s fun to experiment with different brands and models, and each will
offer a unique tonality. But the fact is that most any decent-quality condenser mic can provide at least an acceptable tonal balance for an

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Recording - August 2013

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