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Post by surfguy13 on Feb 18, 2017 13:20:36 GMT
I used to use Fret Doctor until it became so expensive and so hard to get hold of that I gave up. It certainly worked well and didn't seem to have a detrimental effect on strings.
I still use a bit of lemon oil, and just a small ammount, on rosewood boards on electrics when changing strings but never use anything on my acoustics as they both have ebony boards and in my experience oil just doesn't seem to be absorbed. Even Fret Doctor. Ebony appears to be incredibly dense with little or no grain and I find it tends to sit on the board and end up all over the strings and my fingers!
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Post by surfguy13 on Feb 18, 2017 13:14:03 GMT
Hello there. Coming late to this discussion but if you haven't bought your mic yet, let me recommend the AKG C3000. These have recently come down in price to around the £130 mark, worth every penny. I have 3 of them of various vintages, and have used them in the studio for all sorts of things for many years, but especially for acoustic guitar. These are large diaphragm condensers, and it's an open secret that the capsule is the same as in the legendary, very expensive C414. Just the electronics inside the mic are different. Soundwise they are warm and clear, and they are easily robust enough to use micing up an amp. All the best Alistair Russell Hi Alistair I've just had a look at the AKG C3000 and it does look extremely impressive for the money.....as you say, around the £130 mark. Also, what is even better is that it comes with a 4 year guarantee which is comforting. As it happens I haven't yet bought a mike, although it's currently top of the shopping list!, so it's incredibly helpful to have another recommendation. It's not easy buying a mike that will work well for an acoustic guitar but also for miking up a cab too. From what little I've read about the C3000 it seems like it covers both basses well. Thanks a million for the nod and I will report back if I end up with one!! Cheers Guy
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Post by surfguy13 on Jan 4, 2017 20:35:05 GMT
I have an akg c451 which seems too bright to my ears on my lakewood m32, someone else suggested Rode NT2A, CAD M179...😕 Regards Rob😊 I'd be a little surprised by this as well! However, the Rode is a decent mic although not as rich in the mids and low end as something more expensive. Your recording room has a lot to do with all of this. I've just made one of the best recordings I've made for ages. It was in a 15th Century house with very solid walls. The natural acoustic of the room was superb. I placed two small condensers on a stereo bar about six feet from the female singer. The guitar accompanists (me) was positioned a little to one side and a little beside the singer. The singer was positioned in the middle of the stereo mics. The resulting raw recording was superb and shows just how good small condensers can be with vocals. In basic terms it needed no treatment at all but as it was a single source recording I did employ a few bits of processing. A little compression brought forward the vocals a bit. I took down the lower mids and gave a subtle boost to the high mids. This simply lowered the volume of the guitar and increased the volume of the vocal a little— they inhabited different spaces in the sound spectrum. this was simply adjusting the balance of the mix — as I would have done using faders on a multi track recording. But the room was the star. Try different recording spaces and see how that effects the tone of the AKG! SaveSaveI this is an excellent point. We tend to spend too much time worrying about equipment and not enough time considering acoustics. Also mic placement. I always use the same space for playing/recording and so I know exactly where everything has to go to get the best sound. That doesn't mean I get it right every time but at least it is consistent! Of course the guitar is not something to ignore either! My main guitar is all mahogany and for me this has made a huge difference relative to more conventional timber combinations. I have always tended to struggle with treble responses when using a rosewood/spruce guitar and all too often found myself very unhappy with over-bright and sometimes harsh trebles. Mahogany seems to be able to offer a smoother top end but without loosing the clarity and bright response you expect from rsoewood/spruce. As mentioned earlier in this thread, strings seem to make a difference too. With this particular guitar I find that I get a totally different response depending on whether I use phospher bronze or bronze.
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 31, 2016 13:59:51 GMT
Good points but remember Mic placement is probably the most significant factor! Have to agree with Andy. I'm not really that much of a techie so I won't add anything to the discussion re mic specs etc. One variable which hasn't been mentioned is the way an acoustic is strung. This year I returned to Bright Bronze strings after years of using Phosphor Bronze (always GHS). The change in tone was significant, and this is on a Fylde Oberon I have owned for decades. I will be recording an album for release in the Spring and I'm sure that the change in tone will have a small but noticeable effect on the recording/mix/mastering process. This is an extremely good point! I had used phospher bronze for 30+ years before literally stumbling across a set of bronze that were left in the case of a guitar I bought. I eventually decided to give them a try and was blown away by the difference they made, relative to phospher/bronze. I can strongly recommend them on all mahogany guitars, they add another dimension.
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 31, 2016 13:48:52 GMT
Have you thought about a ribbon mic? SE electronics make a very reasonably priced one. They aren't condenser, and you have to be very careful not to supply phantom power, but the sound of one of these is very organic, and they sound terrific in front of an electric guitar amplifier. Rode make an extremely nice one, but it is about £500. Listen to their demo of it though. Robbie Hi Robbie Yes I have! However, I have heard loads of conflicting remarks about what they work with and what they don't! It's interesting that they work well in front of a guitar amp, that's really interesting. It's extremely frustrating that you have to suck it and see with mics, there's little if any opportunity to try one before you buy so it's often down to trying to find someone that has one. I noticed that SE have a riboon version of the X1A mic so I'm wondering whether it might be worth buying a standard version and also a ribbon version and that would appear to cobver all the bases.
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 27, 2016 18:19:36 GMT
Hi Guy Agreed about attenuators. I did go through a couple of amps with built in attenuators and I hated the way they attenuated the tone as well as the volume. The Micro Mass does the attenuation in a very neutral way - it's been great value for not much money. Talking of Sound On Sound, here's a link to one of their articles that goes quite in depth on the subject - it may be of use. I believe the small diaphragm type of microphone is reckoned to respond well in close-miking situations to the natural transient response and dynamic character of the guitar, giving better clarity, sparkle and detail than the large-diaphragm, and with minimal distortion and colouration. Something to do with the speed with which the microphone reacts to the sound I am given to understand. But I don't have the knowledge to know if this is hogwash - I just like what my ears tell me. I did reject a pair of Oktava Mk-012s though before I found the Avantone CK-1's that I really like. But I'm sure many people prefer the sound they get from a large diaphragm .... that's the trouble with musical sound - it's all so subjective as to what is good / bad. If you do end up with two condensers like you mention it also gives the opportunity of double miking the acoustic guitar. The sound from the bridge area for example is quite different to that from the neck / body join so one microphone aimed at each of those locations gives more of a flavour of the full sound range of the guitar. Mark Hi Mark I agree, the Weber Micro Mass is a really excellent attenuator.....just about everything Weber produce is well made and does the job! I had a Micro Mass for some years which I used with an old Selmer croc skin head and it was really great but......it just seemed to compress the sound so much as you dialed more in that you lost the sparkly trebles and deep bass. It is a problem when you have neighbours and an attenuator is a must. A friend of mine in France is a keen guitarist and also builds/repairs amps and he has to use an attenuator all the time. he's just had one made for him in the USA at a cost of £450 and he says it's a lot better than the off the shelf units he's used but it still compresses the sound. Thanks a million for the link to the Sound on Sound article......I read this a few years ago and recently tried to find it on S on S and failed! Having it again for reference is so helpful. As you say, we all hear things very differently and of course all acoustics are incredibly different in terms of projection and quality of sound. My main acoustic is all mahogany and although it is amazingly bright and sparkly it will never be as bright as a rosewood/spruce guitar so getting mic placement right is essential. Using only one mic I tend to set it up just behind the soundhole, between the soundhole and the bridge, and seems to give me the right balance. However, it's interesting that small condenser mics tend to have a little more sparkle than large diaphram options, something I didn't know. So, going down the road of a small and large together might work perfectly. I will read the S on S article tonight and I am sure that will either confuse me totally or set me on the right path!!!!!! Cheers Guy
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 27, 2016 10:17:01 GMT
Just re-read your post and I'm pretty sure you have an acoustic with an under saddle pickup installed? if so it is relative easy to do. As you say, simply remove the strings, tape the bridge down with masking tape, and then remove the threaded nut from the jack socket on the exterior of the guitar. However, before doing this attach a piece of thin wire (or thing string, anything that's flexible) to the thread.....this will allow you to guide the jack socket back into place when you have repaired it. There should be enough wire between the pickup and the socket to gently pull the socket out of the soundhole. Maybe only just enough but enough to re-solder the socket. When you've finished gently pull the jack socket back into place with the wire and tension the nut.
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 26, 2016 18:29:21 GMT
If it is a semi acoustic a la Gibson 335 then it is not an easy job to replace the socket. Whether the socket is on the top of the guitar or on the side wall the problem is that you will probably need to remove the whole wiring loom to get at the connections. This is because the short lead to the jack socket is normally not long enough to pull out through the f-hole or the bridge pickup route without the 4 potentiometers and the switch assembly having to come through first. This is the maddening thing about semis!!!
There are some tricks to getting the loom out and then back in again but it's not for the faint hearted. Someone I know is a dab hand and his tool of choice is a long pronged fork that you get with a carving knife set. Manufacturers tend to use as little wire as possible when building looms and so there is rarely enough wire to even pull the two volume pots through the f-hole let alone the jack socket.
Very best of luck with this and don't despair, a good guitar tech can do this is no time at all so it shouldn't cost a fortune.
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 24, 2016 19:35:27 GMT
My advice is that your first mic should be the best large diaphragm condenser mic that you can afford. sE and Rode offer a wide range of good quality mics at affordable prices. (e.g sE2200a, or Rode NT1). Use that mic for both vocals and acoustic guitar. If your budget allows go for one that offers a choice of polar patterns like an sE4400a or a Rode NT2A. Later, when you have more cash, buy a small condenser mic - again sE and Rode are very good value. My last condenser was an SE2200A and it was faultless so maybe that is a good choice? I will have a look at the 4400A and the Rode NT2A as I haven't checked either of those out so many thanks for the tip. It does make sense to buy a large diaphram mic now and then but a small diaphram mic later....as with large diaphram options, Rode and SE seem to be consistently good!
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 24, 2016 19:31:39 GMT
I believe two small condensers to be better. Mic positioning means a lot and I now use different mic positions for different guitar styles. Mind you, changing the recording position in the room also had a big impact. In general I think small diaphragm mics are more versitile. That being said, a good large mic such as those we are talking about can produce a great, great, sound. If you sing and are on a limited budget a decent condenser is where I would start. You can always add the kit over time. If it is just guitar then the best pair you can afford would be worth it. I've built up my mics over years - good medium mics but which still cost a fair amount (Mojave and Beyerdynamic). Mind you, I still don't know how to use the damn things properly! Like you, after donkey's years of recording I still can't honestly say that I fully understand what I'm doing! My mic positioning is always a bit hit and miss but the good thing is that I am always playing in the same room so I know what I'm going to get. I think you are dead right about a pair of good quality small diaphram mics for acoustics.....although I have never used small diaphram mics I have read a lot about the benefits of using them for recording or just miking up. I use a very old pair of Tannoy Cheviot monitors and these allow me to monitor the deck and at the same time use them as I would a dedicated acoustic amp due to their ability to handle just about anything. However, in an ideal world I had wanted to try and find a bit of a dual purpose mic to use for miking up the acoustics and also for using in front of a cabinet. Sadly it's impossible to try before you buy with mics so having feedback from people that use them, and the feedback here has been so helpful, and also online research is almost essential. However, there is now SO much gear out there that making a decision is far from easy! I've never owned a Rode but there are so many positive comments onlinbe about the fact that they're bullit-proof and really high quality mics. I have used SE mics before and I agree, they are consistently good. In the sub £200 price range I think thew differences between the market leaders will be very small indeed and whether my ears will ever be able to pick them up is debateable!!
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 23, 2016 22:00:13 GMT
I was reading a Sound on Sound article recently which mentioned that there are a fair old number of very high reputation engineers who will happily record an amp with a Condenser Microphone. Nearly always a large diaphragm one. Needless to say all the microphones mentioned in the article ran into £000 levels! But it does sound as if it's a very valid option to use a condenser. I've seen it said that there's potential to overload and damage a condenser microphone while a dynamic can stand so much more pain. The fact that there's an almost universal acceptance that a small diaphragm condenser is not good for recording amps would make the single microphone plan a problem for me. I've found the small diaphragm condenser so much better for recording acoustic that I wouldn't want to go large for that. Conversely vocals sound so much better with large than small. But I guess that's the case in all things - any jack of all trades will do a lot of things with no problems, but it will lack that added extra sparkle in some of those areas. I'm afraid from personal experience I can't comment on recording with a condenser microphone off the amp as living in a flat the neighbours issue means I'm recording a guitar amp from the line out with a Webber Micro Msss in the chain to shut off the speaker if any grit is needed in the sound. Good luck in your search! Mark Hi Mark Sound on Sound is still a really great source of info isn't it? It's normally my first port of call for anything technical. I can well believe that most sound engineers will use REALLY high quality condenser mics for recording a signal from an amp. I used a SE2200A for years and I used it in front of a guitar amp or speaker cab a fair bit, normally alongside an SM57. Although this SE mic is not hugely high quality it certainly handled everything I threw at it. However, I am pretty sure that you need to choose your mic with care as some clearly don't like being put in front of a guitar amp. I've never actually used a small diaphram condenser, either with an acoustic or with amps, but it's incredibly helpful to know that they do not like amps. I have looked at a few small diaphram mics over the last few days as dual purpose options so I will probably put those aside. My instinc is to go with a large diaphram condenser as this is the only type of condenser I have ever used. However, interesting that a small diaphram is a better option for an acoustic and this reinforces the view that maybe I need to buy two separate condensers for amps/cabs and for the acoustic. I might go for something like an SE X1A and see how that performs with acoustic and if I can't get a decent sound then maybe go with an additional small diaphram. It's a huge pain having to use an attenuator isn't it? I'm lucky enough not to have any real issues with noise/neighbours!!! Many thanks for the advice, really helpful to know a bit more about small diaphram mics. Cheers Guy
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 23, 2016 13:56:51 GMT
Not doing the whole 'make it louder' thing, I don't know if this is either relevant or of interest... Free dual pop filterI think that's a damn good deal, particuarly as one of the options was a X1A!!
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 23, 2016 10:26:54 GMT
Have a look at the new Aston mics - if I was looking for a first quality mic, I would be looking at these. Designed and built in U.K.! Wow, these mics look really excellent and the BIG thing in their favour is that they're UK made. Thanks so much for the nod, appreciate it!
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 22, 2016 16:13:53 GMT
I really can't decide whether to chuck a decent amount of cash at a condenser or just go for what I have in the past which is a sub £200 mic. I had an SE2200A for a long time and that was excellent but sadly died last year. I think that was only about £120. Really helpful to know that the X1 is so good and will work for both guitars and cabs. I had seen it but don't know anybody that has one so.......! If this has worked so well for you I might just go ahead and grab one as a recommendation counts for a hell of a lot. Appreciate it. Although the Lewitt sounds amazing it is slightly more than I would like to spend; however, as with the X1, really good to have a recommendation from someone that has one. Most of the mics I've had have lasted almost indefinitely so it's not overmuch money to spend on a quality mic that will keep on giving!! I got my X1 several years ago and it was about £140, maybe it had just come out. It was still made in china etc, so it can't be too much different. It is a good all round workhouse, great on female vocals I found (also as a hi-hat mic of all things, but I digress). It seems like the X1 has now been superceeded by the X1A but looks pretty much identical. I'm not too technical so looking at the technical specs for each didn't mean a lot. It looks like they do a kick-drum version of the X1A as well! The SE2200A seemed to excell in all areas that I tried it......vocals, miking up guitar and bass cabs and of course acoustic too. I normally DI bass but the SE2200A seemed to handle it very well indeed to my surprise.
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Post by surfguy13 on Dec 22, 2016 14:11:37 GMT
What's your budget mate? I love my Lewitt LCT640 for acoustics. I've also had great joy using some of the small diaphragm t-bone mics as a stereo setup for my acoustic. I wouldn't particularly use either on electric cabs though. If I could only have one mic from my small collection that I would use for both jobs it would be the SE Electronics X1. I think they are less than £100 now also. I really can't decide whether to chuck a decent amount of cash at a condenser or just go for what I have in the past which is a sub £200 mic. I had an SE2200A for a long time and that was excellent but sadly died last year. I think that was only about £120. Really helpful to know that the X1 is so good and will work for both guitars and cabs. I had seen it but don't know anybody that has one so.......! If this has worked so well for you I might just go ahead and grab one as a recommendation counts for a hell of a lot. Appreciate it. Although the Lewitt sounds amazing it is slightly more than I would like to spend; however, as with the X1, really good to have a recommendation from someone that has one. Most of the mics I've had have lasted almost indefinitely so it's not overmuch money to spend on a quality mic that will keep on giving!!
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