This page is a rough tutorial of how to mic a guitar amplifier, made from all of the experimenting I have done with micing guitar amps.  Not everything on this page may work for you and your given equipment, but I thought that this information might be useful to anyone who is frustrated by not being able to get a good electric guitar sound on their recordings. 

Step 1: Your Gear

This is unfortunately a very important part of the process.  I hate to say it, but for the most part, you have to spend some money on your amp/guitar/ and/or effects to get a good sound.  You also need a decent recording setup, but that is not as costly, and many cheaper options can result in a good sound. 

A.)   Guitar – this is less important than you might think.  Don’t think buying a new guitar will make or break your distorted guitar sound.

B.)   Effects – these are not always necessary, but know that your favorite recordings most likely have heavily ‘effected’ signal chains.

C.)   Amp – this is probably the most important piece of gear.  This WILL make or break your sound.  If you like the sound of your amp live, then it will most likely be ok for recording.

D.)   Microphone – this is also a pretty important piece of gear in getting your desired sound, but the position of the mic matters as much as the model of mic itself.  (I would suggest the Shure SM57 though.)

E.)    Recording System – there are so many options for this, that I won’t even consider it affecting the overall tone of your guitar and amp in your recordings.  As long as you have a decent setup that you know how to operate, it should be sufficient.

Step 2: Mic Placement

This is a very controversial topic, and there are countless websites showing where to put your mic in relation to your amp’s speakers, so I won’t go into great detail.  However, there are 2 general ways that seem to work:

A.)   (For a bright sound) Point the mic at the rim of the center cone of the speaker.  Make sure that the mic is 1”-2” away from the grille cloth of the amp.  Then, make sure that the mic is at a slight angle off of 90 degrees to the face of the amp.

B.)   (For a dark sound) Point the mic at the outer area of the speaker cone, about 2”-3” from the outer edge.  Make sure that the mic is 1”-2” away from the grille cloth of the amp.  Make sure the mic is perpendicular to the face of the amp (angling the mic in towards the center cone will make the sound less bass heavy and dark).

These two scenarios are pretty much the two extremes of common mic placement, (without getting into irregular or experimental techniques, of course).  Any placement in between these will result in a less extreme dark/bright sound, which very well may be desired.  Experimentation with your individual setup using these guidelines is the best way to find the sound that you want – not just copying the setup that someone else found to work for them.  Also, don’t think that uncommon mic placement is always a bad thing either.  Who knows – turning the mic completely away from the amp and putting it in a bucket might sound good to you!  (This type of thing actually working is not likely though…)

There is also the option of multiple-micing an amp.  There are even more techniques for doing this then positioning a single mic, so I won’t even try to cover or explain them all.  What I have found useful is micing two speakers of an amp with the same individual mic placement and microphone type.  In other words, mic one speaker, and mirror what you did using the same type of mic on another speaker.  Different blends of these two signals using your mixing board can result in some interesting sounds.  This same thing can also be done using only one speaker, but by placing two mics mirrored on either side of it, instead of using two separate speakers.  This will give you a different, but equally cool sound when blended in different ways.

Note: Phase Problems

You can actually ruin your recording sound by having two mics out of phase.  This means that the sound waves from the two mics are slightly off, or delayed, and actually end up cancelling part of each other out.  This can happen when two different microphone models are used, or two mics are not placed at the same distances from the amp.  To diagnose this problem, record a test track with one mic panned hard left, and the other panned hard right.  Zoom in on the recorded stereo track, and look closely at the wave forms.  If the waves are both going up and down at the same points, then you are IN PHASE and ok.  If one of the waves is slightly behind the other going up and down, or if they are moving up and down at opposite times, then they are OUT OF PHASE and you have PHASE PROBLEMS.  To fix this, you may need to reverse the phase of one of your mics (if it or your mixing board has a phase switch), or just play with your mic placement until the problem goes away.

Step 3: Your Sound

You must know what your guitar sounds like at speaker level.  I mean, if you stick your ear right in front of the speaker, what does your tone sound like then?  (Please don’t hurt yourself by trying this with the volume up…)  This is often overlooked by guitar players, since most of us don’t have Marshall Full-stacks blaring at us at ear level.  We often tend to get a good tone in the room that we’re playing in, but when a mic is put up to the speaker, it sounds horrible.  What most people don’t seem to realize, is that it would also sound horrible to your bare ear if it was as close to the speaker as the mic is!

So…. To get a good recording tone, it is a good idea to place the mic where it ‘should’ be (see Step 2), and then listen on the studio monitors and adjust your tone accordingly, so that it sounds good through the monitors (not necessarily from the amp itself!). 

You may have to play around with mic placement and settings – going back and forth until the desired tone is reached.  Either way, adjust your amp so it sounds good through the recording setup – not so that it sounds good to your ear in the recording room itself!

Also, a cranked amp just sounds better, so don’t think that a huge amp turned way down so that it can be recorded without being painfully loud will sound great on ‘1’. 

Step 4: Recording

Now, you can actually record.  Make sure no one bumps your mics, or messes with the amp’s settings.  If you have a tube amp, leave it and play it for at least 30 minutes before recording with it, so that it can get really warmed up.  While you record, I would suggest letting the guitar player stand where he usually does in relation to the amp when he plays live.  That way, he will get the same feedback/magnetic interaction/sound vibration between his guitar and amp that he is used to.