How are you miking. What is your room like? Sound clip?

Not sure about the B*ger, but your 57 should be more than adequate for miking a guitar amp.
Like Guitarfreak implied, mic placement is CRUCIAL.
If you can, put on some headphones, and spend about an hour moving the mic around.
The tone will change as you go closer to the cone or edge of the speaker, and as you get closer or further from it. It will even vary from speaker to speaker if your cabinet has more than one.

Do the same w/ the C4. That mic might do you better as a room mic (6' or more back from amp).

Guitarfreak also hinted at another "placement" variable - move the amp around. Point it at a corner, point it into space, lift it off the ground.

Bottom line, experiment w/ placement until you're sick of it. Then experiment some more. If you're still not happy, then *maybe* think about another mic.

Cool, Thanks guys. I'll take some pics of the room & throw a sound clip up soon. I have a feeling I'll be coming back here a lot and asking many questions. :D

I tried moving the amp back as my buddy and I were finishing up for the night. We are in the process of building a full out studio in the basement. anyways I dramatically changed the sound... made it much bigger and more powerful. although it still wasn't exactly what I wanted I do see what you mean. I know what I'm doing tomorrow. :D

That's why I recommended the C4 as a room mic. Keep the 57 up on the grille, and use the C4 to get that "space".

Let us know how your experiments go!

I have a question for Soap. I've heard of people that do what you described, which is use headphones to monitor the tone as you move the mic around. This is supposedly done on stacks with large cabs. My question is how would you hear enough of the headphones to make a decision without the cab drowning out all other sound? The only way I can think to do it is with two people, one moving the mic and one in the control room waiting for the desired sound to pop out.

The only way I have been able to hear how the different mic positions sound on my amp is after-the-fact, when I have a few tracks laid out mic'd from different positions.

If you can have someone else move the mic for you, all the better.
They have the cans and you give them instructions.

Typically the solo person doesn't have that option, so (w/ a smaller amp w/ the volume at a moderate level), use cans. That way the amp bleed vs/ mic sound is minimized.

Besides, you can play a few licks, note the sound, THEN move the mic, then play a few more licks. Even if someone else is playing the guitar, you can adjust, listen, adjust, listen....

I'd love if I could just sit in the CR and have the mic moved as I wished as I compared placements. So far as I know, if you're the only person there, amp/mic modelers are the only way you can do that.

That's really one of the bigger problems I have - in my limited time @ my space, I'm there to get the job done. I have minimal time for experimenting (unless the musicians want to play ball), and almost no time w/ someone to help me out while I monitor in the CR.

Here is a [[url=http://[/URL]="http://vids.myspace…"]video from Audix[/]="http://vids.myspace…"]video from Audix[/] on guitar cab mic positions. They want to sell their products of course, but there's a lot of good info in the video. You 57 is essentially equivalent to the i5.

Nice link Bob.

In my posts here, I try and bridge that gap from noob (what's a bus?) to people like me who have a pretty good idea what they're doing, but still have a lot to learn.

During my more formative stages, direction like that was pure gold (whether I found it or not).

I've learned 2 things while getting serious about doing this:
1. Nothing is better than experience/experimentation
2. Except when overseen by a more experienced engineer

While your post isn't direct oversight, it's exactly the kind of starting point beginners need. In fact, it's even something someone like myself should revisit time to time.

Ya, good link Bob.

I like the
Audix CabGrabber Amplifier Microphone Mounting Clamp. $50 clamp that works well. I wonder if the sound of the cabinet migrates into the mic in a good/bad way? Has anyone ever used one of these?

Hey I just asked that question last week!
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I trust Davedog enough to put in an order for a couple of the clamps today. (And I do like the quality on the D-Vice.) I'll give my own review in a week or so. Definitely going to help clear clutter. Madmax is right that you can rig up something similar for a lot less than $50. But this is nice looking and versitile. Time vs. money thing for me right now.

Thats my latest toy to move mics on a cabinet from the control room. A simple USB cammera on the robot and your can watch from your control and listen to mic movement.....

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

lol