Acoustic Gtr Treatment

Martin has a D41 'Turbo'

Exactly Donr. This little discovery may become my acoustic technique for a while until I get more comfortable with more advanced mic techniques.

Ward, the Turbo found me. Around 5 years back, I had a $2,000 budget for an acoustic. I had found an amazing mint, used D-16 Martin only a week before that was at Sam Ash selling for $1,200. It was the best sounding acoustic/electric I'd ever heard, but I wasn't sure I wanted an acoustic at the time, as I had a nice Takamine 341SC.  I noted that the D-16 had a 2 pickup system, on in the body, and one, a mini mic you could position just under the strings in the sound hole. A week later I went back to buy it, and it was gone.

So, I began looking around and found nothing to compare with it at any price. Finally I went to Mandoline Bros. on Staten Island, NY, (sort of a pilgrimage) to look at guitars. Nothing sounded right to me. I settled on an sweet used Guild Jumbo for $1,850. and said I'll take it, but the guy before me had just said he'll take it, which was strange. I kept trying other guitars and none had any mojo. My friend hands me a guitar and says "try this", so I'm playing, and I'm playing, and it dawns on me this guitar might as well be a Stradivarius, it was that good. I asked  the owner what's up with this, and the first answer was a long story about its provenance. The second answer was 5G's. I put it back, downhearted.

Curious, I tried every single high end Martin in NY, every one, price no object, and none topped the Turbo. I keep thinking I'd lost something special. Finally I called up Mandoline, and put a $2,300 deposit down, having no idea how I'd get the rest of the money. They had a weird layaway policy then, where after I think.. 4 weeks, they can sell your item, and you don't get your money back, just a credit. I managed to pay it off, selling some things, and I'm glad I did, as I've never heard a better acoustic yet.

There's a lot more to it, but there's only one other Martin in existence with exactly the specs of mine, and 9 others with a spruce top, not a shade like mine. The make the neck at the nut 1/16" smaller now. I like the bigger neck, they sound better. Ask cowboy, he's got one now.

Back to our topic, the guitar helps a lot when it comes to getting a good acoustic recording, but simply put, to me, it's the mic placement that's most important. I used to keep it too close, now I only keep it a little too close.

It's hard to resist, that big deep sound is so seductive. I've tried to put the mic even further back, but settled somewhere in the middle, where I'm maybe an inch away from too much proximity effect, but still get some of it.

Good to hear from you odyssey, and thanks for the compliments and suggestions. I especially appreciate the comments on the vocal, as it truly was done as a guide vocal. I Plan to try once more, with feeling, as they say, but could probably live with the vocal as is with a line or two comped. There'll be some backups vocals, harmonies, and perhaps one more guitar to fill a hole or two. My friend's suggested a Baritone guitar for a little Texas twang, but I've never used one before.

I'll try to be more open regarding the two similar acoustic tracks being mic'd and EQ'd differently, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Best example I've heard recently is Ryan Adams' "Two", check out the album track here, two similar acoustics, perfectly done, panned all the way L&R:

How so bro? the revelation that distance equals depth? I always trip on the close micing acoustics thing without good reason, the only reason I can see purposefully going for a proximity effect, is for a acgtar that is seriously lacking bottom all together?

seeing this thread turn towards double tracked acoustic guitars reminded me of double tracking an electric with an acoustic.

i guess it's nothing new to some but i started doing it after deconstructing some sonic youth albums where it's used widely. tracking a fender on one side and doubling it with acoustic on the other. has a very familiar sound to it and blends really nicely.

would like to hear some of that if you can Ward.

https%3A//soundcloud.com/wardpike/loved-by-yousnip

there are two tracks of the same here, both recorded with old Neumann U87 mics in Cardioid pattern in XY stereo config, through vintech X73 preamps. No compression. No EQ. the doubled track needs a few fixes here and there but is much much lower in the mix than the principal track.

this is the acoustics that the vocal and some dobro will be added to. Not much else. The rest of the record is full band.

It's pretty durned easy when the acoustic guitar isn't going to be fighting with drums or keys or a dense mix. Getting the acoustic placed and treated in a dense mix takes effort/time/experience/experimentation and/or skill.

I claim none of the above.

Ward, nice tones! Those highs are so soft and sweet. No lack of body either. I hear the "pull" that Tony's talking about. That might sound pretty cool with vocals and some other instrumentation going on. Nicely done.

Does anybody wish to comment on the acoustic sound on this Keith Urban song?

It seems to have some space - and "warmth" in the sense that it doesn't have digital brightness. One mic or two? It's pretty even volume wise. So, it's either a very accomplished player or they're applying some compression (or both) without crushing the transients. The width balance combined with his narrower vocal is beautiful imo.