fender bassman tube amp
What are some good microphones for recording cranked amps?
when i say bassman i mean the fender 59 reissue tube guitar amp
Ive been trying to record my cranked bassman but the mic i have seems to distort vrey easily no matter where I put it. Are there some mics that are better than others for this?
Depends. If you are simply turning your amp up really really loud, then you’re going to have a hard time capturing a good tone close-micing the amp.
The industry standard is pretty much the Shure SM-57. Being a dynamic mic, it can handle a little louder SPL levels than a condenser or (especially!) a ribbon mic.
If you have a condenser or ribbon mic, you may have already damaged it… the rule with those mics is that you never want to put them anywhere you couldn’t put your own ear – they can be relatively fragile. Make sure this isn’t the case, try recording something quiet and see what happens.
The problem here is that you have a loud tube amp. Loud = bad, whether on stage or recording… well, especially for recording. You must be able to sound good at lower volumes… this is one of the reasons why a 100w tube amp is just stupid – you have to turn it up too loud before it starts to saturate and start sounding really good…. in reality, a 50-60w tube amp is about as far as you want to go, and for recording you would preferably want less… but I suppose I digress….
My suggestion for you – be quieter. Get a THD Hot Plate, one of the best attenuators out there. You can use it to still have your amp cranked, but take down some of the volume so you aren’t blowing out your mic.
The other big thing is that if you’re talking about high volumes, your only other option is distance – you can’t close-mic a really loud sound. Of course, distance means more room-sound, and that’s not necessarily something you’ll want.
Those are your choices. Oh yeah, or getting some THD Yellowjackets, or something of that sort. Putting low-wattage tube converter sockets into the normal power tube slots will change the tone a little, but will let you get that cranked sound at lower volumes.
So… dynamic mic, attenuator, low wattage power tubes, distance. There you go.
Saul
1954 5D6 Fender Bassman Harp Demo
