Guitars that record well..

[lppier]

Just want to draw on the experience of the recording folks here... which are the guitars that you think record well (as in, less hassle to set up) in a fingerstyle context? I have this bias thinking that small bodied guitars tend to be easier to record... am I wrong?

In order of
1) Brand
2) Wood type
3) Body Type

[rick-slo]

Most guitars record well if you pick a guitar that is half way suited for the type of music you are
playing (there are tone balance, note clarity, and note quickness trends in body size and wood types
you can hear the effect of in live play) and if you take the time to work on your recording setup.

[moon]

Any guitar which sounds great ought to be good for recording. The only real difference is that you're working within a smaller dynamic range so louder instruments might need to be tamed with a bit of compression, depending how they're played.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by lppier

I have this bias thinking that small bodied guitars tend to be easier to record... am I wrong?

I have no reason to think this is true. All depends on the sound you want. I think you do sometimes find a guitar that records better than it sounds in person, and maybe vise-versa now and then, but I've never noticed much correlation between woods and body types and being easy or hard to record in spite of what you sometimes hear people say.

I just spent a bunch of time nailing down a mic placement for doing some overdue recording, and did all the fine tuning on one guitar, then once I was happy, did a quick sanity check with a bunch of different guitars, different body sizes, and everything from a high strung guitar to a baritone. All sounded fine to me, with no changes. Sit down, hit record and play. Maybe I could fine tune a little for each guitar, and maybe I will, but nothing struck as being more or less difficult.

[gregsguitars]

Bright ,snappy guitars cut through the mix better. Guitars that are made of maple tend to be the best,large bassy guitars like the J200 would be my last choice.

[lppier]

I dunno .. but I just keep recording and recording but never seem to be satisfied.. what is your process of getting the mic placements correct?
Because I hear that recording engineers put their ear around the guitar to find the sweet spot... I don't have that luxury because I'm a one-man-everything..

[Bob1131]

Originally Posted by lppier

Just want to draw on the experience of the recording folks here... which are the guitars that you think record well (as in, less hassle to set up) in a fingerstyle context? I have this bias thinking that small bodied guitars tend to be easier to record... am I wrong?

In order of
1) Brand
2) Wood type
3) Body Type

I think it depends on what you are doing. In the context of fingerstyle, as previously pointed out by others, all good guitars record well. However, it has been my experience that smaller bodied guitars generally have a more balanced sound, in terms of volume and tone from string to string, so they tend to record cleanly without compression and EQing to compensate for volume differences and excessive booming or chime. Similarly, a boomy jumbo or dread guitar can sound boomy in a recording, and it is often difficult to clean up that boomy sound. I think that is what gives rise to the notion that small bodied guitars are "easier" to record.

In thick mixes, a brighter guitar is definitely a better choice, as Greg stated. I use a Taylor GA4 which delivers a warm, yet bright tone that holds in the thick mixes I generally develop. Of course, a skilled engineer can do wonders, even with a thundering rosewood jumbo, so YMMV!

[KevWind]

opps any one how to delete a post ?? Can't find the option in the edit or edit Go Advanced window ??

[KevWind]

AS long as the gtr sounds reasonable, I would think things , like IMO- performance & technique, placement, mic, pre amp, etc are much more important as to quality of the sound.

[Bob1131]

Originally Posted by lppier

I dunno .. but I just keep recording and recording but never seem to be satisfied.. what is your process of getting the mic placements correct?
Because I hear that recording engineers put their ear around the guitar to find the sweet spot... I don't have that luxury because I'm a one-man-everything..

I'm a "one man everything" too. I use headphones to isolate the best sounding position I can find for each mike. Depending on the song and mix, I sometimes use spaced pairs, sometimes a single LDC at the neck-body, sometimes X-Y pair, and occasionally I plug in and mic together. If you are doing a lot of experimenting and still not happy with the sound you are getting, perhaps you should be looking at the room acoustics to see what you need to do there to improve the sound.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by gregsguitars

Bright ,snappy guitars cut through the mix better. Guitars that are made of maple tend to be the best,large bassy guitars like the J200 would be my last choice.

This is one of the reasons there is so much conflicting advice on recording guitars - there are so many applications. My mind, like Rick-Slo's automatically assumes solo guitar, and the OP did say "fingerstyle guitar", so I also assumed solo, perhaps incorrectly. "Cutting thru the mix" implies there's a bunch of other instruments that you somehow want the guitar to "cut" thru, which is fine, but a whole other style.

I dunno .. but I just keep recording and recording but never seem to be satisfied.. what is your process of getting the mic placements correct?
Because I hear that recording engineers put their ear around the guitar to find the sweet spot... I don't have that luxury because I'm a one-man-everything

Me too, and recording yourself is a challenge because you have to wear all hats. On the other hand, you have the luxury of messing around as long as you want to get the sound. No engineer in a pro studio would spend the amount of time I have spent just messing with mics placement for myself - or maybe it'd be more accurate to say I wouldn't want to pay someone to spend that much time!

For me, it's simply trial and error. You can try headphones, but I usually find them to be a bit deceptive. I might start with headphones, then record a few bars. Stop, listen, move mics, repeat until happy. I do use lots of meters that can give me a visual of basic stuff like balance and phase, and that I can see from across the room while I'm setting up, but in the end, you just have to listen and see if you're happy. If you're not, move the mic an inch and try again. It's tedious, but you learn a lot.

Usually these days, I don't end up with any magic sweet spots on the guitar. The mic setup I have up at the moment is simply a spaced pair, about 20 inches apart, maybe 10 inches from the guitar, just straddling the soundhole. Sounds great, and works fine with a variety of guitars. I also have a second set of mics, in MS directly in front of the guitar, aligned with the top of the waist, above the soundhole. I'm recording the 2 stereo tracks, and can blend to taste, or use which ever one I find sounds better.

[15 Man]

Anyone I've talked to that has a smaller body guitar and is recording straight into a tape deck or computer, and not through a mixing board, has said that they believe that they record better and more easily. I have to agree with this. Any time I record with my 000-15, I just plug my DI box straight into the computer and go; and it sounds great. I've had people listen to recordings that I've done who have also heard my 000-15 in person; and they can't believe how good it sounds. I think that part of the reason is that smaller guitar bodies have a more balanced sound.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by 15 Man

Anyone I've talked to that has a smaller body guitar and is recording straight into a tape deck or computer, and not through a mixing board, has said that they believe that they record better and more easily. I have to agree with this. Any time I record with my 000-15, I just plug my DI box straight into the computer and go; and it sounds great. I've had people listen to recordings that I've done who have also heard my 000-15 in person; and they can't believe how good it sounds. I think that part of the reason is that smaller guitar bodies have a more balanced sound.

A 000 is more a mid size guitar rather than a small one. Mahogany versus rosewood helps a bit also. Larger guitars are not really a problem, again depending on the sound you want, but you have to be more careful with them as to where you place the mikes if you want to keep the sound clean, especially taking care in avoiding proximity issues and soundhole issues.

[alohachris]

Aloha,

The only guitars that can give an engineer potential problems are the huge 5" deep suckers with boominess issues. Those are also the ones that gives people problems in Live situations, especially using pickups like K&K SBT's. But they aren't that big of a problem at all.

I had some minor EQ-ing problems in studio recording situations in the 70's when engineers tried to mic my Brazilian rosewood Dreads and Jumbos. Subsequently, I made some gigging guitars for myself - all 00/000/OM's sized with slightly more depth for more bass. These have worked better for me in recording as well than those 5" boomers.

Of course the best guitars are from reputable individual luthiers or smaller shops, and are made of ALL solid woods. You'll always get better recording results with a handmade, complex overtones guitar providing great natural string to string balance. EQ fixes of a guitar's deficiencies are to be avoided or minimized, if can

More important to getting the results you're after is improving your room treatment:

But Bob said it all here:

"If you are doing a lot of experimenting and still not happy with the sound you are getting, perhaps you should be looking at the room acoustics to see what you need to do there to improve the sound."

Often saved for last in terms of recording investment, room treatment oughta be first! It will certainly make more of difference in recording than the size of your guitars or even the mics you use, IMO. I found that out first hand.

Our nahe-nahe slack key friend "Uncle" Fran Guidry provides much useful information on his site about cheap, portable DIY room treatment. Check it out.

http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2009/...trying-to-fix/

And this.....

http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2009/...-on-the-cheap/

Good Luck!

alohachris

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by alohachris

and still not happy with the sound you are getting, perhaps you should be looking at the room acoustics to see what you need to do there to improve the sound."

Agreed, when I first started recording years ago, I struggled with a boomy sound, right around the low G that seemed to be in all my recordings. I blamed the guitar, then the mics, I tried to EQ it, then... I learned about room acoustics, and discovered I had multiple room modes right at that frequency in the room I was using. It wasn't the guitar that was boomy.