I've heard stories of people using AKG C1000s on guitar amps. Has anyone tried this? Does it work? Can the C1000 deal with the SPL? What about other condensers? (I'm about to start working with a band, and I'm trying to come up with interesting alternatives to the ubiquitous SM57.)

I've done this. i didn't have it hard up against the cloth, maybe about 10 inches off it, so I couldn't comment about extreme spl handling. The nicest way you could describe the sound would be 'transparent', though 'piss-thin' or 'fizzy' might be closer to the truth. It did give harmonics and feedback a pleasantly disturbing edge. Might be useful if you used it alongside another mic to give the sound a bit more body.

ive done this before and i was extreemly dissapointed with the results. It's not bad if you use it while on a clean setting but it will take out almost all of the low and and you will have a hell of a time trying to get it sound right. Miking a guitar cab with this using distortion is pathetic, get a shure sm57 or if you have more money the shure beta 57a

My best results at micing distorted guitar come from an AKG c3000 and a Shure Beta 52, mixed to one channel on the mixer.

Is the c1000 really that different from the c3000? Is it really that terrible?

The 3000 is a Large diaphram, the 1000 is a small diaphram. Never used either, but I'm assuming there is a bit of a difference. Most small condenser mics respond better to highs. Large condensers have a fatter low-end responce, among other things. I would think somthing like a c1000 would sound brittle on an electric guitar, but nice on an acoustic. Don't shy away from an sm57 just because it's cheap or because it's not a condenser. The 57 is a standard for a reason. If you don't like the way it sounds maybe it's not the mic.

The C3000 and C1000 do sound pretty different from each other. The C2000 and C3000 sound pretty similar, in spite of the fact that the 2000 is a small-diaphragm. And actually, I don't really like the way the C1000 sounds on any of the acoustic instruments I've tried it on. I was hoping there was something it did really well, because I hadn't really found it yet. (My MC012s sound much better.) I guess it is going to be the ol' 57, after all.

I have never really liked the sound of a small diaphragm condenser on electric guitar amps, although I have in the past used an AT Pro37r with passable results (although I did have to EQ the living motherfuck out of it). As of late, my "go to" mic for a guitar cab is a 414 set to figure of 8.