How do you guys do it!? mic, line out, or both?

[thedude400]

I have a Mesa 1X12 combo with a line out specifically for recording. I have been focussing alot lately on recording drums so I haven't done much with guitar. What are some good ways to record this (or any) amp? I've heard an SM57 right up close is a good way. Are condensors popular when It comes to micing amps? A friend of mine always used to record a line out, a room mic, and a 57 up close and then he would mix these three tracks in with eachother to taste. Anyone have luck doing it that way? Anyone think just a 57 would do the job just as well? Are there other mics I should consider that could be conducive to a fat distorted rock guitar sound?

[dwarf]

a 57 on its own has recorded many classic guitar tracks.

It all depends on the sound you want.

[Doc Holiday]

A 57 close mic'd will sound good. You might want to add a little reverb to give it more of a room sound. If you got extra tracks to play with, you can experiment with all the different ways you mentioned in your post. Then you can pick the sound you like best.

[jimistone]

im going to try something new the next time I record a guitar part. Im going to mic the cab as usual....but, im going to use a Y and send a guitar signal to the amp and one raw signal to a channel on the mixer. That way, if I end up not liking the miced amp results.....I can just loop the clean recording of the guitar signal into the amp...mic it....and redo the guitar part without having to play it again.

Sometimes a guitar part thru a miced amp sounds great when recording it....but might not set as well in the mix as I wanted it to.

If all I have is the miced amp recorded....I end up having to redo it and might blow a great performance....if I have the raw guitar signal saved...I can always experiment with amp settings until I get what I want.

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

I've got a Sennheiser e609 Silver. It sounds awesome to me. 57s also sound nice. I used to record with a 57 close to the cone, and a CAD condenser a few feet away and I would mix both. Line outs are usually really bad on guitar amps, for bass it usually isn't so taboo. In the end, I guess there probably aren't too many "nevers" when it comes to recording, but line out and guitar is probably under the "rarely" or "in small doses" category. If you had to choose one recording method to get one track, line out would not be it. In a 57/condenser/line situation, the line will most likely not be the loudest in the mix. That's if you even need it at all.