on mic-ing guitar amps, there are many methods. no right or wrong answer. I'm sharing what I know.

1. SM57 is still the most common 'go to' mic to go to for guitar amps. pointing it towards the centre of the cone will be more boomy as compared with towards the edge. a common practice is somewhere in between. there is some 66% rule if i recalled correctly. it means putting it 66% away from the centre of the cone.
2. The mic can also be angled. putting it directly perpendicular to the amp's speaker grill is known as mic-ing on axis. putting at a certain angle will affect the tone too. do experiment with it
3. As for distance, its typically between 1" to 10" from the cone. It affects the tone due to the 'proximity effect' microphones have. (imagine talking into the mic with your mouth touching it, itll sound bassy, while slightly further itll sound natural). The further it is away, the higher chances of 'bleeding' from other external sounds.
4. For studio environments, its common to add another condenser mic at a further distance to capture more of what the player is actually listening to. there are calculations for this especially if the speakers are in stereo (we typically dont want a phasing and cancellation effect). however, i'm not gona give a technical lecture here on the calculations.

i've learnt from mistakes i did and here are some common things we guitarist do. for those of you here who are starting to gig, well hopefully this can help.
1. avoid the smiley face EQ. human ears tend to be more sensitive towards mids (roughly the 3kHz region), therefore, the smiley face tends to give a nicer, louder impression (when at a lower volume). when gigging/recording, volume is usually high, therefore making the impression useless. what you end up getting is too much bass and treble and no mids. you cant cant through a mix without mids.
2. during soundchecks, guitarist usually setup to have their sound so big that it takes up the entire frequency spectrum. they sapu everything from bass all the way to the highs. its alright to use a high pass filter to cut off the bass. your guitar sound will not sound that good on its own, but once the whole band plays, its so clear and everything comes out nicely in the mix (with no cancellation or 'boomy'-ness) and overall, you sound much more professional.
3. we usually set up our EQ by standing slightly further from the amp. (i mean, hey, who actually puts their ears on the speaker when they play?!). remember that your mics are so close to the speakers. so if you actually walk and listen to your monitors/house system, there is alot more highs (thus you can sound really sharp on the house system). so after setting the EQ where you find nice, its always safer to slightly lower down your highs. if you are daring, put your ears next to your speakers and play and you'll get this point. (dont hold me responsible for losing your hearing though! )
4. putting your amp on the floor tends to sound more bassy and sound bounces off the floor and bleeds into your mic. try putting it at an angle (or on an amp stand)

as for what i do live:
usually a 2X12" is provided. if there are alot of instruments in the band (or there is more than 1 guitarist other than me), i'll just mic up one speaker.
if I am the only guitarist and I need a bigger sound, I'll mic both speakers, with each of the SM57 with different distance from the cone, and diff angles (one on axis, the other angled, usually about 30 degrees). i then pan the mics one hard left and another hard right. as the result, there are 2 slightly different tones coming out from the house system, giving it a nicer bigger sound.

hope it helps. thats all i can think of now. (gosh didnt realise i wrote so much). anyone got anything to add that i missed?

edit: sorry double post

This post has been edited by echobrainproject: Yesterday, 02:49 PM

Blacktrix, the SM57/58 goes for around RM350...

as in, using a mixer or extra eq to cut off the bass?
if dont hav both, is it ok to put the eq like, low bass, high mid, medium high?

nice post btw. learnt a lot.

Awesome post man. thanks for the help. Will try out some of the techniques when I can.
Hmmmmmm...... for RM350, maybe I'll go get it when I'm back from Europe.

Speaking of EQ pedals, I had a sad smiley face before I stopped using my eq pedal completely (stupid behringer switch gone bonkers =( sigh)

usually if you talk to the soundman he'll do it from there. (and most good ones do it even without telling you).
however, knowing the local scene, only do it if you know the soundman doesnt take it personally. he can definitely screw up your act. always be polite, and never give instructions. politely give suggestions, and always thank and give credit to your sound engineer.

i was at urbanscapes and saw this band (im not gonna name them), and they are slowly gaining popularity. i was abit shocked to see how rude they were to the sound engineer.

hey guys today i had the same problem.i was doing my soundcheck b4 my gig tomorow and everytime i use my digitech metal master distortion the guitar tone really cant be heard.maybe im putting the lows too much and very little mids on the amp and pedal.any advisable amp and pedal tweaking suggestions to make my guitar sound more clearer .this time im using a higher watt amp.so i dont think its the amps fault.help tx

the rule of thumb that i usually follow is:
1. crank up the bass till the amp starts to buzz, then backup a few notch
2. crank the treble so that it'll balance the bass
3. add mids as desired.

i found that eq settings differs a lot from one gear to another, so the mid-scoop setting may not necessary be the best. just use your ears.

my 2 cents.

ill try the mid scoop tomorow.tx again

i don't think u should go with the mid-scoop way, since you wanted to add more tone to your guitar. try putting in more mids instead. try to balance the mids and treble.

im gonna play metal.so all the bass and treb and mids musst be balance around 8?

try not to use the notches to gauge balance. all 8 doesn't necessarily means balanced. heck, it'll sound horrible actually, no matter on what gear. just try the steps i've posted, it have helped me a lot. the hard part is to get the balance between bass and treble. the mids depends on your taste. believe me, mids does help put some crunch in your tone, don't neglect it. even for metal.

Yeah, forgot to mention that as you know, amp settings can vary from gear to gear. My Marshall's EQ is totally nothing like my Laney's EQ...... so what might work for you at home, won't be the same on a different amp.
Follow Echobrain's advice on how to properly setup for live performance...... they are REALLY helpful.

ok tx

wah everyone gigging tomorrow eh?
Gapnap with Emerge, me at the NECF closing, evalshtog with his metal show!

evalshtog, try lowering gain. i am not joking. with higher wattage amps and louder volumes, lower gain can actually result not only clearer, but heavier! *metal horns up*

yeah..1 day before merdeka ...good day for events i guess..people will come ..

all the best in your gig yea ..

LOL! all the best man. solo kaw kaw, but give some room for ur other guitarist la. kesian him, your tone so nice nobody hears him. pump the MIDS!!!

btw, whats ur gt6 setup before u plug into the vox?

oh nola ..me and my other guitarist.....its not like ..."i pawn you on the stage" kinda thing lor ..
got understanding punya ..

i am using the 5150 mod , one of the variations ..and tube screamer as a booster..you also use gt for live shows ah ?

but in ur video, ur really pawn him la, cant hear him at all
anyway, GREAT PLAYIN!! i like it!

haha ya la. by the way awesome tapping !!