?A lot of beginners who are really new to recording are always looking for solid answers to their questions. I think in some ways, learning to record is like learning to fight. Being a great fighter isn't about knowing the best moves, it's about reacting to your opponent. I think the same can be said with audio recording.

Because of this, I'm usually a little hesitant to simply suggest that a person buy this mic, this soundcard, and this plugin and be done with it because everything is simply way too subjective. However, with that being said, I've found that I've only used 2 different microphones on electric guitar the past year. They are the Shure SM 57 and the Royer R121. Ironically, each one sounds quite a bit different from the other.

Get The Sound Out Of The Amp

As always, I must say that the biggest secret to getting great guitar sounds is not really found in the microphone. Microphones do sound different but most young engineers are shocked that X mic doesn't sound a million times better or even little more than slightly different even though preconceived notions would suggest otherwise. You can read all about it in this article: Microphones Don't Make THAT Much Difference.

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The real secret to great guitar sounds is found in the guitar sound. If I could manage to get the best guitar sound in the world coming out of the amp, I could stick just about any of my mics on it and the resulting tone would be pretty cool. Some mics will make the tone harder to fit in the mix, but much of that can be accounted for with mic placement.

For the home recording beginner, this means that it's very possible for you to recording tremendous guitar sounds with your relatively cheap gear (compared to what the pros are using). It means that your average PA system microphone MAY do just fine on your electric guitar amp. The trick is to make sure your guitar amp sounds great. If you have a Musician's Friend special, you may have a hard time. (I call trendy amps that sound like shit “Musician's Friend Specials” because most of the time these amps look great in the picture but don't do so well with a microphone in front of them). I like to use big boy amps even though I probably paid less for my monstrously pro amps than you did for your Musician's Friend Special.