If you want a solid amp for your studio - go with any of the Boogie Rectifier series amps. They are rock solid the sound great at any level. I have my Dual rectifier I bought in 1992. Still going strong.

Stay away from Amp simulators.

the microcab doesn't have any tubes in it. its basically just a glorified DI. I love it for recording guitar direct. However... you won't get a "live" guitar sound with it. everything will sound dry and up front in your mix.

You'll want to go with a decent mic and guitar amp but which one depends on your budget and style.
If your recording metal/hard rock I'd go with a Boogie or Marshall(I personally prefer a marshall anyday over a over priced Boogie)
for blues/classic rock I'd use a Fender (twin reverb, bassman, blues deville)

a few cheap mics for guitar would be a Sure SM57 & Kel Audio HM-1

if you go with a epiphone guitar you'll want to have the pickups replaced(Seymour duncan 59's sound nice). Epiphone pickups really suck

hope this helps

sorry about the mic suggestions. I didn't read the part where you said you have lots of mics.

What type of msic, at least predominantly, do you think you'll be using it for?
And what's your budget?

Nothing gets that modern rock grungy sound like the Mesa Rectifier... but there's almost NOTHING else i'd use it for.

tell us a bit more about what you hope this will DO for you.

I also think an Epiphone Les Paul, unless you're dead set on it, is not a first rate choice (to put it kindly), unless you're talking about their Elitist series.

If you get a Marshall and want to save a little cash...the only cheap Marshall that sounds good is the VS-100 head....IMO. Other than that go with either Boogie or Marshall.

I have guys bringing in their Line6 amps all of the time and I hate em. I know people that love them to death, but I get a piss poor sound out of em.

Both Marshall and Boogie each have their own defined sound, and either one could be used for every variety of music. I actually like both and don't really favor one over the other. It comes down to what I hear in a song. Luckily, I've got a few guitar buddies that own every ype of amp under the sun. Right now I have an Orange half stack for an emo/indie rock band that I'm recording.

re,

I am not too familiar with guitars but from what I've noticed guitar players using in emo/hardcore/metal bands is that shape of guitar and for $600 I don't think it is a too bad of a choice. Plus I am wanting to get an amp so that if a band wants a good guitar sound but has crap equiptment then I could either charge them to use it or just let them use it (depending on circumstances). I have recorded on mesa's and I love them, my buddy's got a dual rec head and it nice, in my opinion of corse, the first time I recorded some mesa's I swear it was the first time for me that I didn't need to double the guitar tracks, I enjoyed that. But not every band you record has that kind of stuff, one of the last bands that recorded had this peavey 2-12" combo amp that was connected to a zoom 505 pedal and that sucked, too much noise from the pedal. yuk. Thats my reasoning for doing this. Buy the way what about those orange amps? They just look really freakin cool.

My guitar mics include:
md421II
sm57
beta 57a
beta 56
e609s

NOTHING can beat the sound of a mic'ed amp. Period. Yeah, most emo/hardcore bands out there are using Mesa Rectifiers or Marshall JCM 2000's DSL or TSL. Orange amps are amazing. They have more crunch than balls out distortion, so I'm not sure if they'd be really useful for metal. Indie kids would wet themselves for one, though.

In my experience, amp simulators don't come anywhere close to being as good as a real mic'ed amp. They just lack so much tone, and air. I have a POD XT that I use for scratch tracks but usually end up tossing them once the real guitars are recorded.

amp i'd recommend the fender hot rod deluxe but the pod may be a better ideia! as for the guitar nop! go for a strat!

The Orange amp absolutely smokes for indie/emo/rock and MIGHT work for metal. We had the gain at about 50% and had enough saturation that would compete in the nu-metal world. I'm going to buy an Orange amp very soon. No matter how I mic'd it the sound was just huge!

Also....the Orange has the best clean channel that I've heard out of any amp. I'm a guitar player, and have searched every amp for a nice clean channel and the Orange is best by far! The way it sounds coming out of the amp is similar to how any good amp would sound after EQ and effects....really smooth!

Arthur, what Orange amp are you looking to get? I've only heard bands play them, never had the opportunity to play one myself.

The one that is in my live room right now is a Rockerverb 50....so far my favorite sounding amp overall....I've recorded Vox, Bogner, Mesa, Marshall, Crate, Drive.....you name it....cheap to super expensive and this is the easiest amp to get a great tone out of. These are priced comparably to Mesa Boogie heads.

When tracking we used a 57 an inch from the grill at about 1/3 from the edge of the speaker. The 57 went into my Brick. Then I used an E609 on axis with the cone angled at a 45 degrees toward the 57....also about 1 inch. I had to correct the phase, but it smokes! We used an American Tele and tomorrow we are using a Gibson SG.

Do you have any clips?

I will tomorrow when we finish tracking guitar....I'll let you guys know because I'm pretty proud of this recording. I feel that I'm finally recording listenable tracks.

I also find that there is nothing better than using a real amp. I like recording hardcore/metal bands using a mesa triple rectifier, but i also record the line signal, which i sometimes run through amp simulators... I used to use ampfarm, but i have just discovered NI Guitar rig! This amp simulator is great to fatten the sound of a recorded amp...

RE

Yeah post some tracks of that orange amp, I am seriously considering the rockerverb 2-12 combo, I saw on harmony-central.com that there are 9 reviews and everyone gave it a 10 except on the features it had a 9.7 which I thing is pretty damn good, I don't think I've ever seen this on something on harmony-central.com (at least with that many reviews). I just wish they had clips or something I could hear the thing. I was also considering the mesa rectoverb too, at almost half the cost and and would have to wait 4-6 weeks to get it. I would just have to get a guitar to sound good though, I've hear shitty guitars going through nice amps and it just makes the amp seem bad and thats just not right.

I'll have to do some research on that, Anyone know a good guitar forum? I don't want to waste guitar questions at the recording forum.

Bob

....I'll let you guys know because I'm pretty proud of this recording. I feel that I'm finally recording listenable tracks.

We are still waiting for the clips :roll:
Promise? :(

mululu wrote: I also find that there is nothing better than using a real amp. I like recording hardcore/metal bands using a mesa triple rectifier, but i also record the line signal, which i sometimes run through amp simulators... I used to use ampfarm, but i have just discovered NI Guitar rig! This amp simulator is great to fatten the sound of a recorded amp...

i ve been trying to find a way way by which I can split the guitar signal into two, one ffeding my DI (clean) on which i can use an amp sim, and one that runs into say a GT6 (still waiting to afford) which is then wither taken direct or into an amp (miced) ... help appreciated.. I suppose a Y-cable will not drive the guitar well...

thank you
Sidhu

sidhu there is a new gt! the gt8! being a guitarist i have a gt-6 and i must say i hate the sound of it! only use it slightly for some delays, tremolo (can't afford the seperate pedals) and so on...
i have a fender hot rod deluxe and i use a boss ab-2 for choosing to go straight to the amp or going from the gt6! i do this cause it doesn't have a true bypass and the signal feels so digital!
Take a look at the line 6 and the vox! they have a cool setup!

im not the one with the GT.. its a guitarist of a band which records with me... i hate the sound,, but the above statement was more of an example...

i really want to know which is the best way to split a guitar signal..

Sidhu

do a search here on the forums with the title guitar splitter from me! we have all discussed that here! radial and so on...

cool. thanks!

Sidhu

I would go with the Little Labs STD guitar splitter box...

I use it and I love it..

As far as Amp simulators... They just dont cut it in my book...

my 2 cents

Jim

Try This little rig

I have used a George Dennis Mighty mouse combo on a few recordings and It has performed admirably. Mic them up with an Audix i5 and a Beyer mt88 and you should get great results. These little amps sound great clean, and even better when you drive the tubes a bit.

Not an expensive way to go either.... 8-)

I found that the best Guitar Modeling system is the Vox Tone Lab. No matter what type music the older tube Fender Princeton Reverbs sound huge and if they want more distortion throw a GOOD analog pedal in front of it.

has anyone tried the line 6 amps? (the real, physically air moving amps i mean)

Personally, I love using real amplifiers even if it's not a tube amp. You will get a much better sound.

Of course, an amp modeler is a good option but you can get the same features with modeling amps.

For example, this post explains why modeling amps are a good option for recording.