As close or as far as it takes to sound good. It really depends on the sound you're looking for. If your room sounds good, a distant mic can sound really good and natural. Personally though, I'm not opposed to shoving the mic right up against the grill cloth.

I think you should take a 57 and smash it up to the grill cloth. Then take your favorite condenser microphone and stick it in the middle of the room. Record each one on separate tracks. Then you have a choice. To ramp up that choice, utilize an active Direct Injection box. Print the raw direct guitar sound to a individual track. The loop through from the DI box will be plugged into the amplifier which will have a microphone. That goes on another track. You then have the ability to play back that raw guitar track and backfeed it to a different amplifier directly. Put a microphone on that amplifier and print that to a different track. Now you have the same guitar 2 different ways through two different amplifiers, blah blah, etc., blah.

Double your pleasure. Double your fun. I ain't got no gum.
Ms. Remy Ann David

^ Why bother adding my two cents, thats good advice!

But no really, what I simply do is stick an SM57 straight up to the grill, a second one at a 45 degree angle (as close as you can do the first mic), and then I will run the guitar DI (which I may or may not use but depending on what you are trying to accomplish). A room mic a couple feet away may sound nice also depending on the room.

For simplicity, (and reiteration x3) an SM57 as close as you can to the speaker!

OK Cool, thank you.

I only have a Audio Kontrol-1 right now, but I think Im going to return it. I bought it for 200 Im probably going to look at spending another 100 does anybody have some opinions on what I should go after in the 300 dollar range.

If you're looking for a simple interface to just record guitar/bass or something with only a few inputs I'd suggest the Firebox... Comes with Cubase LE. Think it's only about $300. Not familiar with the Audio Kontrol but did a quick google search to see what it was.

Most recently I've been putting a 57 right up on the grill (as usual), a 414 behind the cabinet (it's open) about 3 or 4 inches from the driver, and a third a few feet away in the corner of the room...