As everyone else has said, small diaphragm condenser. BUT, if you are on a tight budget and already have a large condenser, use that! Depending on guitar, you'll probably find that you get the best sound pointed either where the neck meets the body, or somewhere near the bottom - both at relatively close proximity to the guitar.

losthighway wrote: Tue Oct 12, 2021 6:06 pm Two mics can give you choices but phase is complicated and the relationship can shift by the performer sitting in a slightly different position.

This is quite noteworthy. Guitar players who are primarily electric players or used to playing w/ an acoustic pickup may be squirmy and have some challenges sitting still. Watch (and listen) like a hawk. if you have the mics hard panned, you may not notice so be sure to hit the mono button to check.

Another pretty common way I've seen to record acoustic and get some depth is the ol' sdc in an x/y pattern - this should make it extremely unlikely to have phase issues. You can also try changing the axis of the x/y to a vertical orientation (although if they are singing, you might get too much vocals).

Garth wrote: pickup at that point IMO (which considering the client's needs, might be worth experimenting with as these have really come a long ways).

Wanted to expand on this a bit because as I have seen doing more live sound, I've noticed these have improved so much over the last few years. They used to be a god-awful compromise and had to accept shit sound as the trade off for drastically reducing feedback issues. You were much more likely to get away w/ sending a person their pickup signal back to them in the monitors w/out feedback than a nice-sounding mic - and then just the mic would be sent to FOH. Some of these I dare say are good enough to use on recordings, especially if blended w/ mic.

Another experimental and fun option is taping a contact mic w/ some gaffer to the body and blending that as well. Those are super cheap. You may have to do a lot of experimentation to find the sweet spot without dampening the body resonance too much but I tried this live recently for an acoustic that didn't have a pickup and was surprised how well it ended up working.

An omni mic or capsule seems like it would be a good idea. Anyone here using one on acoustic, maybe one of you with an MK012?

I've used a pencil mic aimed at the soundhole with an omnidirectional condenser for above/room to good effect.

I've been looking at some choices for stereo-pairs, based on your recommendation and doing some searching around myself. These seem like choices to look into.

- Octava MK12
- Golden Age FC4 ST
- AT Pro 37
- Shure KSM137

The Golden Age are the most affordable, but are they worth it? Anyone have experience with them?

Anyone have experience with the KSM137? (They're less expensive than the KSM141s, but they are the same without the multipattern options.)

cakes wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:00 pm Anyone have experience with the KSM137? (They're less expensive than the KSM141s, but they are the same without the multipattern options.)

It's what I have and use for stereo overheads at home. I honestly haven't tried one on acoustic guitar yet but I can tell you they sound nearly identical on drums to my bandmate's stereo pair of KSM-141s in Cardioid mode.

We have A/B'ed KSM137, KSM141, SM81, and MK012 on overheads in an XY pattern. They all sound great but we prefer the KSMs for that purpose.

cakes wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 3:00 pm
Anyone have experience with the KSM137? (They're less expensive than the KSM141s, but they are the same without the multipattern options.)

I have one KSM137, and a pair of KSM141s. They are equally handy in terms of tone, tolerance for loud sources, detail, just the added omni setting on 141 is the only difference. I'd say I've only used my 141s in omni a few times, but some people get more into that.

Such an incredible value in a mic. I've put over a decade into mine, and it's honestly taken a Josephson E22 to beat them, and that's a way more expensive microphone. I'll still probably keep my KSMs forever, they're great for overheads and can really do just about anything competently. (I've recorded fucking bagpipes with it).

Here is a good article from SoS, complete with some quotes from FM Steve:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... itar-sound

tommy wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:28 am As everyone else has said, small diaphragm condenser. BUT, if you are on a tight budget and already have a large condenser, use that! Depending on guitar, you'll probably find that you get the best sound pointed either where the neck meets the body, or somewhere near the bottom - both at relatively close proximity to the guitar.

Do you not get woofy proximity pumping from a LDC up close? I need to back then away at least 18", more like two feet. But I do use big strings and beat the shit out of my guitars, so this does not help matters.

losthighway wrote: Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:58 pm Such an incredible value in a mic. I've put over a decade into mine, and it's honestly taken a Josephson E22 to beat them, and that's a way more expensive microphone. I'll still probably keep my KSMs forever, they're great for overheads and can really do just about anything competently. (I've recorded fucking bagpipes with it).

Yep, the KSM141 is my favorite snare (top) mic, at least as far as mics one can put on a loud snare and not be worried about it.