Micing Amps for guitar

[Strat Man]

I have a strat which I play through a Fender Frontman 25watt amp with Boss DS-1 distorsion pedal.
I don't currently have a 4-track and am just recoding thorugh a small cassette recorder with a cheap mic.
Since I've started playing with the DS-1 i've noticed that mic picks up the sound of the pick hitting the strings in the recording leaving a kind of percusssion beat in the background. I'm quite sure this isn't caused by my playing so any advice on how to avoid this problem how to better place my mic in front the amp would be great.

 

[mastahnke]

Well, actually it could be caused by your playing. I don't know what style you are playing exactly, but if you are palm mutiing a lot, that is a common occurance. The DS-1 though is most likely the problem. That pedal works on gain and with gain comes all the noise of your pick hitting the strings, and if the pickups are set too high, the strings hitting the pick ups. Using a better mic would obviously let you hear more of the real sound. It could be that your cheap mic is clipping --being overpowered -- when you attack your strings so it sounds choppy. A better amp wouldn't hurt either, but I am sure you can't just go spend anouther 500$. You might try lowering the pickups on the guitar just a little, or even try using different pickups, like the middle instead of the bridge or whatever. That might make a bigger difference than you think. Also, you could try not playing wiht the gain and EQ and everything all the way up.
Some tweaking of an EQ either on the pedal, or you amp, might reduce the problem also. Hope I helped.
MIKE

 

[Strat Man]

Yeah I think it's the pedal, do you know anyway to fix this, it's kinda useless if I can't record with it cause my amp doesn't have a pedal in put to turn distorsion on and off. Damn.