First mic for recording?!?
 

OK, I want to record acoustic guitar with a mic. A condenser mic. If I can only afford one, should I get a large or small diaphragm?

Large: AKG C214? Used maybe for $250.
Small: AKG P170 for like $70 new.

What's the rest of the chain?

I would vote for a small diaphragm condenser microphone for recording acoustic guitar. On a budget, the Audio Technica AT2021 at $80 new has worked well for me.

Presonus Audiobox, Mac using Studio One Artist or Garageband.

For $250, you can score a pair of decent SD or LD mics. It's quite some time since I spent time with budget mics, but I know there are plenty of them around both new and used. Here are some ideas:

Small diaphragm Pairs:

Studio Projects C4
MXL 604
Rode NT5
Oktava Mc012
Avantone CK1

Large diaphragm Pairs:

CAD M179 (nice mic)
Various MXL solid state

2 - CAD M179 As sdelsoray says, nice mics (especially for the price) Plus they're multi-pattern.

Recording solo acoustic guitar? If so get a pair of mikes (there are decent ones that will fit your budget.).

I'd start with the mics sdelsolray listed. Have you considered the Apogee Duet?

Only guitar - never going to be recording vocals or anything else? IF your recordings are only going to be a single guitar, then 2 mics to record in stereo is your best bet.

Well that is a good question. Actually this week I plan to record guitar and a vocal line for a draft of a song, but for that I'll just use the guitar pickup. I only have a 2 channel interface at this point.

I've read about the stereo mic thing and there are mixed thoughts on it. Some people say that phase issues can be difficult with 2 mics, so just record 1 and then make it stereo in the DAW software. I messed around with this last night and doesn't seem that hard. Seems like a good first step to just record in mono. If I end up doing a lot of this then I could expand to a stereo mic setup.

Thanks for the help!