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Acoustic Guitar

For acoustic gutiars condensers and ribbons are the two best mic types. Dynamics do not generally do acoustics justice. They just don't have the quick response and sensitivity that the condensers and ribbons do. Condensers work great because they are typically very bright sounding and for acoustic guitar that can be a very good thing. Ribbons are more smooth and darker, so using both can be an excellent combination.

There are lots of options for miking acoustic guitars, but in general you want to avoid pointing the mic directly into the sound hole. This is usually very "BOOMY" and doesn't have a very good sound. It never hurts to try it, but there are a lot of ways to get much better tone out of an acoustic guitar.

The XY Configuration is shown below:


                         Top View                                         Front View

The XY configuration is used to reduce phase issues if a listener listens to your songs in mono (which probably isn't very likely ) because the mic capsules are close together and the sound waves hit both mics at the almost exactly the same time (as opposed to spacing the mics where sound waves can reach one mic before the other). You can increase/decrease the angle of the mics to increase/decrease the stereo width of the instrument.

The XY method can work quite well on acoustic guitar, point one mic towards the fretboard and the other mic towards the body of the guitar. One mic will pick up the warmer sound from the body of the guitar and the other will pickup the brighter sounds from the fretboard. Experiment with the angle of the mics and the distance from the guitar. Closer will have a more direct sound with less room sound and bassier due to the proximity effect (which is explained here), while farther back will pick up more room sound and will have less bass. The XY configuration is often used with small diaphram condensers, but it can be used with any type of mic. Generally you want these two mics to be a stereo pair (in other words, two of the exact same mic) so that they both have the same frequency response.

Spacing the mics out is also a great way to mic acoustic guitar. A very good method when spacing the mics is to positioned one mic in front of and point it directly at the 12th fret of the guitar and position the other down towards the bottom of the guitar body. You can also experiment with angling the mics, for example instead of having the mic pointed directly at the 12th fret, point it back more towards the sound hole. Some good mic combinations is to use both a small diaphram condeser at both the 12th fret and the guitar body, use a large diaphram condenser at the 12th fret and a small diaphram condenser at the guitar body, and a large or small diaphram condenser at the 12th fret and a ribbon mic at the guitar body. Since the ribbon mic is smooth and darker sounding, putting it at the body of the guitar with the warm low sound is going to be a good match. Of course you can use whichever mic you like, this is only a few different suggestions to try.

Another miking technique is the "over the shoulder" method. One mic is placed at the the 12th fret as described above. The other mic is placed on a boom mic stand behind the guitarist, then mic is brought over the guitarist's right shoulder (for a right handed guitarist) and placed right next to the guitarist's ear pointing down at the guitar. This way the mic will pickup the same sound that the guitarist "hears". For this using any of the mic configurations (for choosing which mic goes at the 12th fret or at the body of the guitar) will be a great starting point.

The acoustic has a wide range of tones depending where you place the mics on the guitar body, so try a lot of different mic placements (and mics) until you get the sound you want.


Here is a link to another tutorial on miking acoustic guitars (with very good diagrams):
How to Record An Acoustic Guitar