I think you might be confusing "really bright" with a lack of lows, but I digress...

BRAND NEW STRINGS are an absolute must for that bright "twang" and "ping" that you're referring to.

Mic placement will favor the neck as opposed to the body.

Having the player hold a down pillow between their body and the guitar will help absorb some of the lows also. Not terribly comfy in some cases - If it interrupts a good performance, don't waste time on it.

Get it to sound right on the way in - EQ'ing the body out or the brightness in will sound fake.

How about recording the guitar positioned above a hard wood floor or if you only have a sheet of wood, try that under you...

Roswell-CS wrote: Hey All --

Im about to record a piece that has some acoustic guitar in it, and i want it to sound nice and bright with barely any low end.. like most commercial tunes..

I only have a Neumann TLM 103 to mic it...

Where abouts should i place the mic to get this type of sound?

Or should i mic the middle and just EQ it afterwards?

Thanks!

New strings, for sure. Which strings will depend somewhat on which guitar, which woods and the player. Post that info please.

Regarding placement with the TLM 103, try at the 7th fret or so, maybe 18" out, pointing towards the soundhole, but not quite at the soundhole. To get the sound you want, you might need to cut some of the low end and low mids at mixdown.

...and try a thin pick.

And play near the bridge.

and make sure you're a good guitarist!! :wink:

"...and try a thin pick." NO!!! lol don't use a thin pick... I am a guitarist and I know guitar, especially acoustic... use a thick pick played with lightness and prestige 8-) you'll get the bright sound with a thick pick not a thin one! good luck!

hi there friend...well i got the same mic myself Neumann TLM 103.....well wht i normally do is place the mic about 6 to 7 inches away from the whole point the mic in front... it gives me an overall good sound ..... later on you can reduce the low ends..... or u can use some multiband processor plugins to give a bit boost to the higher mids or hies....

A couple of tips, aside from EQ

If you can source a second mic, set it about 2-3 feet back from the soundhole.

If you have access to a pitch transposer, set it an octave up and mix barely back with the original signal.

For 6->12 strings, a 15ms delay (very low volume) may assist.

If you work on DAW , you can send through a Bus with an EQ where you take out all the lows and leave only from about 4-6000 KHz and then on the same chain you put a Good Hallreverb ...
This way you can add touch and brigthness without changing the original guitarsound. Pretty Cool! :D

light picks are good for funky sounds but you have to have careful cause of the noise you may get with the pick!

i have just finished recording (myself on) acoustic guitar.
i had a REEEAAALLY cheap dynamic mic (sorta like the sm57 but less in output.
i placed it about 2 inches away from the twelfth fret, pointing a little before the soundhole(aimed at around the 17th fret)
i just restrung this guitar, and it sounded GREAT
i only pushed 190 Hz a little (+2dB, broad q)

try it, maybe this works ok for you too

One of the best places I have found to put a TLM-103 on acoustic guitar is below the body, just behind the bridge, looking up at the sound hole about 1/2 the distance between the guitar and the floor.

It seems to be rather bright and clear in that position but somehow manages to take some of the upper midrange harshness out of the character of the microphone without getting dull or woofy.

Obviously, your mileage may vary, but I have found this postioning to work pretty well for that mic in that application.

Best of luck with it.

i think you're getting a lot of good advice here. but for your own sake: try all those approaches out and hear what works best for you (and your instrument and room and mic and micpre and converter)!