What is your preferred method for recording an Archtop Guitar?

[Aiq]

Anyone tried reamping? I have a box but I’ve never used it.

[pauln]

I use the middle pickup and play gently; sounds like an L-5

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Probably 9/10 it goes right up against the grill, dead center of the cone.

Dead center is not often the best location for a full range driver, because the dust cap and cone center are radiating more highs than the outside of the cone. I think most recording engineers consider the best starting spot to be off center, at the junction of the dust cap with the cone. Moving the mic further from the center darkens the tone a bit and moving toward the center brightens it. This obviously varies from speaker to speaker, because dust covers and cone characteristics vary from model to model. Each one has a sweet spot.

The cabinet can also affect this, e.g. if there's a port close to the cone. For cabs with a HF element and a crossover (e.g. Henriksen, RE ER cabs), you need a different strategy.

[Bob_Ross]

Dead center is not often the best location for a full range driver, because the dust cap and cone center are radiating more highs than the outside of the cone. I think most recording engineers consider the best starting spot to be off center, at the junction of the dust cap with the cone.

Correct...but it's also worth noting that the other, equally important variable, is the angle of the mic's diaphragm relative to the angle of the speaker's cone.
iow, it's not just enough to say you will point your mic at the junction of the dustcap and the cone; you also have to decide whether the mic will be parallel with the cone, or parallel with the dustcap.

Personally, if I am pressed for time, years of experience has taught me that parallel to the cone is the preferred position. But those same years of experience has taught me that every variable impacts the sound, and so angle relative to cone/dustcap, as well as distance from cone/dustcap junction, as well as distance from speaker ...as well as type of microphone, blah blah blah ... all impact the results.

And that's just for one mic on the amp. There's also the consideration of a mic (or two) on the guitar. Or another mic (or two) on the speaker. Or a room mic. Or...

[RJVB]

Good thing there's no moderation on this forum, eh?

[Christian Miller]

My favourite method is to pay a sound engineer I trust some money

Failing that I’ll stick it into the sound interface and run an amp sim maybe

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Navdeep_Singh]

Easiest way to make a 4K video with decent sound, no added power supply:

1. iPhone
2. One or Two AudiGo mics


Boom. Good to go.

[Gustavo Eiriz]

In 2026 with this economics
Direct injection If it is a dead acoustic archtop: es-175 L-5 or whatever electric jazz guitar.

A must is a good monitoring with a sound similar to what you pretend in the final mixing. The amp sounds inspires you to play in a certain way so you must emulate that while recording.

You can reamp on the mixing or use modelers or just out of the box mixing. It just gives you more flexibility.

[supersoul]

Lately I've been using a single large-diaphram condenser mic in front of the body, maybe 12" away. I always have the mic set up, so it's just a matter of dragging the stand over and positioning it.

The other way is to plug straight into a DI.

[bluejaybill]

My favourite method is to pay a sound engineer I trust some money

Failing that I’ll stick it into the sound interface and run an amp sim maybe

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have often run direct, but am fortunate to have good mike pres for this purpose. It works fine, and is quick so it doesn't get in the way of creative flow.

But it's not as good as a good miked-up amp. One option: when I was working on a TV series, I hired an engineer for a couple of hours to find a good recording setup. I had my engineer come and set up a Royer and a 57 for me (I hired him to do the mixing but wanted the freedom to do guitars when I wanted), and then we marked those spots with tape. And took a photo of my preamp and compressor (if any) settings.

Things will often change the next time you record, but it was usually a good starting point.

This was for contemporary guitar styles, not jazz. I still have to come up with a good plan for that.

[omphalopsychos]

My favorite acoustic electric recording (from a tone perspective at least) that I’ve done is this one.

Rather than close micing the amp and the guitar separately I placed a stereo ribbon mic about a foot off the ground 2 ft in front of the amp and about a foot from the lower bout of the guitar. To me this gets closer to the old school sounds I like (think Oscar Moore, early Barney Kessel). Back before a studio would run a hundred close micing setups to mix every track, they would try to get the placement of the mics to do the mixing. I feel like it works pretty well. Less common now, especially in a pro studio.

[JazzNote]

My favorite acoustic electric recording (from a tone perspective at least) that I’ve done is this one.

Rather than close micing the amp and the guitar separately I placed a stereo ribbon mic about a foot off the ground 2 ft in front of the amp and about a foot from the lower bout of the guitar. To me this gets closer to the old school sounds I like (think Oscar Moore, early Barney Kessel). Back before a studio would run a hundred close micing setups to mix every track, they would try to get the placement of the mics to do the mixing. I feel like it works pretty well. Less common now, especially in a pro studio.

Very mellow sound indeed. Were you sitting more or less in front of the amp or how else? And: in which directions did you aim the two sides of the stereo mic?