I'm no engineer, but I can say that it's probably just about 50/50, no matter how great the guitarists are. Virtuoso players seem to be able to play either way (from videos I've seen), and go with whatever feels good. I know that standing yields the more "energetic" and "live" sounding take, while sitting yields a more precise recording. I almost always start standing (I play punk music, haha), but if I'm just not getting or liking a part after a few takes, sitting it is. :D I'd guess that most guitarists in bands that overdub sit while most guitarists in bands that record all the instruments at once stand up.

I have been playing over thirty years and when playing acoustic I prefer to sit and electric I'd rather stand. The best players I know seem to be comfortable either way and it seems to be based on the mood of the music or their mood at the time. I was curious as to why you ask?
Jim

The reason I asked is that I am not a consistent guitar player. I find my apparent skill varies considerably, depending on many factors. Obviously one wants the best take one can get, and I was merely curious about this seemingly trivial point, whether other players -consciously or intuitively- lean toward a given posture when recording, for maximum benefit.

Like the observations made, sometimes I feel I have more control seated, but there seems to be an additional sonic energy in the performance when standing at the cost of a bit of precision, but my intuition is that the energy is the more important consideration, especially for someone like me.

I'm not a guitarist I'm a pessimist, feminist, atheist, engineerist & deciderist and I've recorded lots of guitar dudes. There is no consistency as every situation is different. So you don't generally find classical acoustic guitarist jumping around while they play. But then you won't find too many electric rock guitarists who don't? Especially if you can move like Elvis? And if you are into feedback effects? It's really difficult to get the engineer to move the guitar amplifier closer to you while you are sitting while planning. And it's really bad when that little spring at the bottom of the cabinet slaps around too much. I always wondered how they got those atomic bomb recordings? So now I know it was all fake! Of course it probably sounds even better with newer tubes?

Tubular in a quadratic way
Ms. Remy Ann David

The best guitarists practice for many hours every day (or at least did at some point in their lives). Usually that means sitting down, so most at least can play well sitting down. You are better off tracking the way you practice. (If you don't practice that much then it really doesn't matter much how you track.)

Hiya~

It almost always depends upon the difficulty of what I'm playing. If it's a solo I can play in my sleep, I like to stand, in order to infuse the extra energy/looseness into the take. If the solo takes all my possible dexterity (limited even on the best of days :roll: ), then I like to sit down. Perhaps it's a matter of giving my "brains" a rest, I don't know.... :lol:

--JR