When Recording Electric Guitar, "less is more"

The problem with so much choice of affordable home recording gear, is that you have even more ways available to you to foul up your glorious electric guitar sound.

Effects in the thousands, modeling amps, pedal boards you can dance on, virtual mics, and whatever the latest gadget is, can all be marshaled into your sonic armory.

But some times, just sometimes, its good to remember that "less is more". Or, put another way - "KISS" - "Keep It Simple, Stupid"!

So, how do you "KISS"?(!) Let's get back to the basics…

Tune it up

Before you think of recording anything…

• get new strings
• leave time for them to settle
• tune them carefully

Just one string a bit flat can ruin an otherwise monster take!

Electric Guitar Tracking

But how should you capture the electric guitar signal?

There are several techniques used to record electric guitar:

This first method is simple and efficient:

No room

• plug the guitar into a direct injection (DI) box
• connect DI box to your mixer

…with these main advantages:

• complete isolation of the sound
• no sound leaking from other instruments
• clean signal ready for transformation through your effects unit into whatever you imagination creates

What you lose is your characteristic live [tag]electric guitar[/tag] sound produced by the combination of guitar, amp, speakers and maestro!

On the other hand, you may prefer this second approach…

Small is Special

Maybe blasting through your giant 200-watt stack would disturb the neighbors. Very likely it would. But you don't need this kind of power in the studio - you can get away with a much smaller rig.

Think about the soaring guitar tones on Eric Clapton's "Layla" - created on a small Fender® Champs. (See video below to watch Eric Clapton playing a live version of Layla.)

Try using a small tube amp along with a Shure SM57. That'll deliver an authentic rock guitar sound you can't beat.

Microphone Moments

Of course, you can place the mic anywhere in the room you like. But why not start with the obvious - right in front of the speaker… A little off-center should give you a little bit richer tone, but the bottom line is, the sound that works for you is the right sound.

You can experiment with moving the mic to different places in the room and you'll get some variation in resulting tones. As you increase the distance between mic and speaker, you'll get more room sound in the mix.

Final Touches
It's a good idea to flavor the sound somewhat help it fit into the feel your song. If you can, use a little compression to smooth the signal. Adjust the EQ to your own preference.

Tags: Recording Studio, Home Recording Studio, How to Record, Music Recording