Is this true?

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the edzell

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I read somewhere that you can get a good guitar sound for recording by putting a Marshall or Fender mini amp in a shoe box, covering the box with just a little hole for the mic. Anyone else try this? If so how did the sound turn out? How about mic placement?
 
I don't know about that one, but I have been recording guitar tracks with an old pair of headphones plugged into the headphone jack of my little 20w marshall valvestate amp. I just shoved the ball of an sm 58 into one of the earcups, duct taped it in and cranked the amp. I am still tweaking the tone a little, but so far I have been getting some blistering lead sounds this way.
 
sure, why not? sounds like fun to me. especially if you are going for that "mini amp in a shoebox sound".

mini amps sound fun miced. especially if you can play with using a couple different mics and a couple different mini amps. you can get them to sound pretty big or pretty tiny.
 
I dunno about the shoebox, but I do know you can get pretty insane guitar tones with small amps if you mic them right. An 8" speaker can get some pretty tight low bass.
 
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that one of the guys in Korn recorded some guitar parts by putting a mini amp in a drawer and just putting the mic in the drawer with it, and putting some screws or something to rattle around. I don't even like Korn, but I just remember that because it was pretty interesting.
 
The entire Layla album was recorded with little 15 watt Fender Champs. You can crank the hell out of those little amps, and drive the power tubes to distraction, without killing yourself. This is why so many companies are coming out with little 30 watt amps and the like. Hell, almost everything Queen ever did was recorded on Vox AC30s, which are (as the name suggests) only 30 watts.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
strmkr said:
I don't know about that one, but I have been recording guitar tracks with an old pair of headphones plugged into the headphone jack of my little 20w marshall valvestate amp. I just shoved the ball of an sm 58 into one of the earcups, duct taped it in and cranked the amp. I am still tweaking the tone a little, but so far I have been getting some blistering lead sounds this way.
Click to expand...

Hum... I bet I can do that just with the head and not worry about hooking up the cabnet. I'll have to try that, even though with an old Crate head I'm probably better off just going direct with the Digitech RPx400

Thanks for the tips
 
Hey, edzell.

Try direct with the RPx400. I used an RP50 to record this. I recorded direct with the cabinet voicing like you would with a POD.
 
the edzell, to answer your question, yes, you can do anything as long as it sounds the way you want it to when you are done. This is some of the fun of this business and these bizarre recording techniques guarantee that you won't very easily be copied by others.

Good luck.
 
Light said:
Hell, almost everything Queen ever did was recorded on Vox AC30s, which are (as the name suggests) only 30 watts.
Click to expand...

ac30s are fucking loud as hell. in the 60's bands used to play 1000+ people venues with ac30s and no PA.

30 watts of vox is like 2000 watts of crate.
 
Yup - I did this

Funny enough, I stated in another thread not too long ago - I used this approach long ago...

Micro-Stack (the 9V like) - distortion
with mic (chinese sm58 copy - I likred that one very much for its reduced high end)
t-shirt for taking out the edgy reflections

Took me VERY long to get the sound I desired... But in the end worked nice...

aXel
 
Contrary to popular opinion a guitarist doesn't NEED 100 watt amplifiers. Heck, 10 and 15 watt amps are LOUD... much less 30 or 50 watt amps which are super loud, and 100 watts or more is just pure overkill.

I like 30 or 50 watt amps myself, but a well built 15 watt amplifier is very loud when connected to the right speakers.
 
lol tell that to the randall and marshal people....the titan is 300 watts and so is the mode four i think. if we all only got what we needed...it'd be kinda depressing....i think gear whore is the phrase I'm looking for here...having a full stack, 2 six strings and one 7 string guitar , 8-12 pedals and only using maybe 4 of them is a waste by some people's standards....but for the guitarist, he feels warm and tingly inside....it may just be static electricity or the refried bean burritos. if i knew all i needed to bring into the studio was my guitar, some pedals and a 30 watt amp.....i think it might be worth a shot....especially if you have to go up steps to get to the studio
 
I have an electrician friend who built his own beautiful 4" 10 watt amp for his guitar. It has a nice natural finish, and dovetails. We tested it next to a 1000 watt head and a 4 10" cab. It blew the big daddy away because he designed his own tube amplification system, and the wood was like 3/4" thick. That thing is so loud and its small. He spent about a year researching and about six months building. Smart guy!
 
That sounds awesome Jblount. Maybe your friend should start building custom studio amps?

If you're building a collection of amps for the studio, you'll probably be looking for a lot of little tube amps. Most decent studios have at least a half dozen small vintage tube amps. The engineers know that they sound great on tape, and will often discourage you from using your own gear, especially if your using loud transistor amps.

I would like to test the mini amp in the box idea. Great for a guitarist on a low budget that records in his aparmtent.

That's what I love about electric guitar--it's so experimental. I often match up different cabinets with different amps, and effects pedals to see what I'll get. Then the experimentation continues once I've recorded the track--Leslie effects, echo, tremolo, etc...
 
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