Guitar mics revisited
A few weeks ago I asked for input on guitar mics and got lots of awesome feedback. Here’s where I’ve landed for this season of mixing…
- Can’t go wrong with a SM57 or MD421. Nothing changing there.
- I LOVE a Sennheiser 409 but they aren’t made any more and are REALLY hard to find. The Sennheiser 609 is aweful compared to it. On its own, without ever hearing the 409, I thought the 609 was decent but now I’m quite jaded towards it. The good news is that the 906 is readily available ($189) and sounds REALLY close to the 409. Even better, the 906 has three different tone settings onboard that adjust the response. Depending on the rig, I’ve found really workable tone with all three settings. This mic is pretty killer!
- Our old school original vintage CAD E100 is still pretty awesome on Marshall and VOX rigs. If you can find one of the original series of this mic, I think you’ll be surprised by it. (The updated version you can buy new today is dook! Stay away, stay away!)
- Shure KSM32 seems to work a lot better on electric rigs than the KSM44. I’m not sure exactly why – haven’t looked at the frequency response differences between the two. If you play with positioning, I’ve gotten some really nice Marshall & Fender tones with the 32.
- Heil PR30s give me mixed results. I know there are some pretty die-hard Heil fans out there but I’ve only been really impressed with them on toms. Your mileage may vary.
- Looking forward to auditioning an AKG 414 and Royer R121-Live in the next few weeks. Selling stuff has gone really well so now we get to audition and potentially purchase some really cool mics.
The Sennheiser 906 is the clear surprise/die-hard recommendation out of this guitar mic exploration. If you haven’t tried one in your rigs, I would strongly suggest checking it out. I like it so much I’m going to buy 4 more for our other campuses.
If you’ve made it this far in the post, here’s some samples of a recorded guitar amp through a 409, 609, and 906 with the tone settings.
409
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609 Silver Front
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609 Black Back
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906 Flat
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906 Boost Engaged
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Introduction
My name is Tim Corder. I started this blog in February 2007 because there were so few of what I considered good church audio resources available at the time for my team. Fast forward over 5 years and I'm still at it, sharing learnings about the journey towards making audio great. I go through periods where I post a lot and other times when I don't. I'm thankful for the opportunity to share it all with you. Thanks for visiting! 
Great post Tim! Its post like this that help guys like me that don’t get the opportunity to demo mics or other equipment to hear differences and get opinions from more experienced tech. Thanks and keep them coming! And the 906 was the winner for me.
Nice post! I’m a guitarist who does recording too, so I’ve spent a lot of time with guitar mics. I heard the “crappy” version of the 609 has been discontinued and the 609 silver (the only 609 you can buy now) is exactly the same as the 906, it just doesn’t have the bass cut/boost switch. The biggest conclusion I’ve had with guitar mics is: The placement is far more important than the mic. I did a shootout with a SM57, MD421, e906, and AKG 414 and I was able to get a good sound out of any of them, BUT, they each had to be in a different spot on the speaker. I’m convinced (almost) any good mic can sound good on a guitar, you just have to find the right spot for it.