It's all preference really
Even though there are people that have been engineering records since the 50s and have recorded acoustic guitars longer than we've been alive and know everything there is to know, when it really comes down to it, it's all preference. To be utterly honest with you, I can't say I know what a "good" acoustic guitar sounds like. I don't recall ever hearing an acoustic guitar and thinking "that's an awful acoustic". But I do know that I love the sound of the acoustic guitar in many guises. If I've ever heard acoustic guitar that I don't like, it's been to do with the way the player plays it. I have a friend who is a good guitarist but I can't stand much of their playing ! It's so harsh and picky. I've heard them recorded and some of it was lovely. But some of it drove me up the wall.
Ultimately, only you can know what you like. But it's important to explore all the information that those that have been there already give you.
I'm using an acoustic electric 114ce.
I'm recording in a regular bed room (professional right?) The walls aren't sound proof or anything, but it's a very small room (no echo). Mostly all wooden furniture. Carpet flooring.
I received a nasty shock when I first got an electro acoustic. I had previously thought that if you plug it in, you get the acoustic guitar sound without having to mic it. You don't ! Depending on the guitar and the pick up you could get a fair sound but my 6 string when plugged in sounds horrific. My 12 string is a little better ~ but not much.
Like you, I record in what would be considered by many as a not good space but there are means and ways.......
Experimentation and experience has enabled me to get something approaching useful with the paltry tools I have to hand.
With two mikes you can record the guitar in stereo and get a big sound.
Try one aimed roughly where the neck joins the body, and another aimed towards the body of the guitar as a starter. From there you can experiment. Mikes aimed at the sound hole tend to give boomy results.
It's interesting, in photos that I look at of acoustics being recorded during the 60s, I mainly see one mic. Obviously, the recording techniques have developed as time has gone on and logically, one would attempt capturing the guitar {and other instruments} with more mics, but I find it interesting nonetheless. I love the sounds of acoustics in tons of 60s songs.
In the Shure microphone catalogue, it's quite extensive and they give a load of blurb about miking positions and in the acoustic guitar section, I was surprized to see that their standard position was the one mic approach.
I use the set up you have (or did until the head pulled off my SM57), recorded 2 tracks at one time - the SM57 pointed at the 12th fret of the guitar, 6-9" away, and the pickup output on a 2nd track. I found the pickup added a little high-end brightness that the mic was not picking up. You can mix the two tracks as needed to get the sound you want. As others have said, you will need to experiment a little with position of the mic until you find the sweet spot.
I advocate every which way because the scope you can have with open mindedness is mind boggling. I like the way mjbphotos utilized what many have described as a disadvantage to his advantage.
I'm fully conversant with paradoxes and the paradox here is that every technique described gives you possibilities........from which you can try out and decide. Some will grab you, some won't.
I want to give it all that I can get through the tools and gear I have.
So far, I've heard that you can record in either stereo or mono. From there, I want to experiment with angles and techniques. I just want your advice/experience/opinion to kick start some ideas, and help me understand how to get the best sound from my Taylor Acoustic!
Xtra info:
So far, I've recorded my acoustic just by plugging it into the interface. I want to try and use the sm57 though. I'm hearing alot about using two mics to record an acoustic track. Because I don't have two mics, would it be smarter to record one guitar track in the interface and another from the sm57, or record two seperate takes from the sm57 at different angles?
One thing that I've been trying out recently is a 4 track trick. Basically, I mic in stereo with two condensers {either small or large diaphragm or a combination}. The positioning of those mics can vary, like the way Gekko Zzed described or one of the mics over my left shoulder or both high in the air but one pointed towards the body, the other at the neck; it really depends. In addition, I'll plug the guitar into my DAW and attach a bottletop mic to the body of the guitar and connect that too.
What that gives is a cute spread {to my ears anyway} of acoustic guitar. The plugged in tracks are used, like mjb says, to give an imperceptible brightness although much is dependent on how it's all EQ'd.
That doesn't help you with one mic, I know, but it does give you an idea of the scope you have at your disposal for future reference.
try moving around the room.
Play against a wall, in the middle, into a corner, out of a corner.
You'll hear a surprising range of results, I'd imagine.
Reading engineer Ken Scott's autobiography has been a real eye opener. In describing the recording of David Bowie's 'Quicksand' on the "Hunky Dory" album, he says that he wanted the acoustic guitar to increase in intensity as the song went on then to decrease as it got towards the end so he got Bowie to record six acoustic guitar tracks. In the absence of Trident studio, if you were to go for a multiple track recording of guitar, by trying what Steen advocates, you could acquire some pretty great sounding guitar.
