Recording acoustic guitar

first fret trick

When recording acoustic guitar you want to get the most out of your full bodied instrument. The nature of it being an acoustic instrument means that you will need some fairly capable mics if you want to capture the whole sound of the acoustic guitar, everything from the deep lows to the bright highs.

A great way to record an acoustic is with either an X/Y stereo pair, or with the M/S microphone technique.

You can read more about either the X/Y microphone technique here or read my article on using the M/S technique for recording acoustic guitar.

Even though both those techniques are perfectly valid and are often enough to capture your acoustic, sometimes there is a little lacking in the sparkling brilliance section.

Sparkling brilliance meaning the intricate nuances of the neck sound, the crystal clear highs of the top strings and the relationship between the frets, strings and fingerwork.

Sparkling highs

recording guitar If you have a guitarist that plays gracefully, his every finger movement perfect and you want to capture some of the subtleties of his playing, you can try this technique.

This technique is also great if you want to capture some of the brilliance of the strings, for an added high end sheen.

First fret trick

Get a small condenser that you know has a great frequency response in the higher frequencies and place it near the 1st fret. If your guitarist is using a capo then place it on the first fret he is playing.
By using a bright condenser mic right there on the first fret you capture all the highs and details that the strings generate. Move the microphone closer or farther depending on how close you want the sound to be.
Try angling the mic so it picks up more of the higher strings if you want a brighter sound. A few inches here and there might make it sparkle a little bit more. You might get that extra brightness you need.
Left alone, it has a pretty bodiless sound since the only thing this microphone is capturing is the string noise. But added together with either an X/Y technique or an M/S, can give added depth and brilliance to an otherwise normal sounding guitar.
Also, try it alongside a normal condenser that's pointed at a sweet spot somewhere else on the body. Having a large condenser pointing towards the soundhole, or just at the 12th fret will fill out the frequencies that the first fret condenser is lacking.

See if this trick will get you a little closer to that magical acoustic guitar sound you hear in your head. Recording acoustic guitar isn't easy, so I hope you are willing to experiment with different techniques until you find the sound you are looking for.