How to Mic an Acoustic Guitar

 
The Basics

There are many things to consider when micing an acoustic guitar.

First and foremost you should have your guitar in the best shape possible.

Make sure it is tuned and ready with good strings such as  D’Addario EXP17.   

Make sure you have good cables:

Here is a typical Home Recording setup using a Computer Interface and Software:

Lastly choose a good mic for recording:

               



Mic Techniques

There are many ways to go about miking your acoustic for recording purposes.

A popular way of recording an acoustic guitar would be to place a condenser mic pointing somewhere around the area where the neck joins the body. The angle of the microphone and distance from the top will vary somewhat according to the guitar, the desired sound and even the style in which a player plays.  

If the guitar is a little thin‑sounding you will want to move the mic towards the soundhole which gives it a more bassy sound. Your best bet is to experiment with your mic placement for best results.  The picture below shows a typical starting place.

Another common way of placing mics would be in a dual microphone configuration.  In this dual condenser mic configuration you can have a wide range of sounds and it will capture a better range of the instrument and the placement of these mics.  Ultimately you will have to decide the best sound for the song you are recording and keep in mind variability of the players technique. The right sound is sometimes found by moving the mic 1 inch to the left or right.

Please keep in mind that there are so many variants on how to place different condensers that we could talk about all of them for pages and still not please all sound engineers.  So try them all and see what works for you.

Lastly you can do a quick scratch track or idea with a good dynamic mic like the Shure SM58.  Now I do not recommend this for your final recording but many people do record this way to get a quick idea out and share it with the band.

Although it's useful to understand the methods behind these common positions, please note that the resonant qualities of different instruments can vary widely. Acoustic guitars in particular will benefit from a detailed approach when micing in the studio.  Let’s try to think of it this way: since every guitar sounds different, and everyone plays the guitar in a different way, we should move around to see where the best sound source is before placing a mic in front of an acoustic guitar.

Another approach is to have the microphone capture the sound and hear it through the headphones. Then move the mic around the instrument until it sounds right, and leave it there.

Take your time and have fun!

Call one of our MusiciansBuy Recording Guru's at 1-877-778-7845 if you need any help at all.