Shure SM58 for recording guitars

Yesterday I was in our rehearsal room with my drummer and I tried mic'ing my :evil: Line6 :evil: Spider with a SM58 (without the metallic protection) since there weren't 57's at the moment and... :shock: wow :shock: , I don't know if I found a magic mic position or the perfect equalization on the mixing console (old sh!tty mixer by the way), but the tone was amazing and probably the best I've ever achieved (haven't a great experience however, just some experiments with home recording and a dozen gigs with a mic'ed amp), full and crisp, maybe a bit bassy but nothing annoying or unsolvable. I was not recording, just playing through some amplified cabinets to find a good tone for the next live dates. So, have you guys ever tried a SM58 for mic'ing a guitar amp and what do you think about it?

Well, AFAIK the two mics use the same element. Were you close-micing a cab? What was your placement?

The main difference between a 57 and a 58 is that a 57 is unidirectional and the 58 is omni (well cardiod I guess but I can't remember the nomenclature right now.)

the mic was placed less than an inch away from the grille, and in the middle between the center of the cone and its edge. Do you know something about 57's and 58's frequency response (like I said I noticed more bass with 58 )?

If you're using an sm58 for your amp then I assume your amp is cranked waaaay down or is not a tube amp. We tried that once for the hell of it, and it simply didn't work. We ended up wrapping like 5 pairs of socks over the sm58 and it still distorted. The sm58 is a vocal mic, and you might get away with having it as an ambient room mic. But don't try micing a guitar cab with it.

I had the best luck when I was using a line 6 to just direct in with it. Even after I bought a ribbon mic, mbox2 and some other newbie recording equiptment, the line6 only sounded decent with DI.

That isn't saying much, because after I bought a Mesa, I havn't touched the line6 since. Solid state amps sound crappier the louder they get, and if you want a to push a good instrument mic properly, you're gonna need louder volumes. And I don't mean like really really loud volumes, but the line6 after about 5 started to mud up. Another thing you're going to want to do with the line 6 is use the default settings or LESS. I always cranked up the gains and the highs and the bass because it sounded good at practicing volumes. But when you need to crank that thing up, the default settings on the amp sounded much much better.

I was told the 57 and the 58 are the same mic but the 58 has the guard around it for vocals

acor said:

I was told the 57 and the 58 are the same mic but the 58 has the guard around it for vocals

Click to expand...

I was under the same impression, and was told so by a local studio tech.
Couldn't swear to it, though.

acor said:

I was told the 57 and the 58 are the same mic but the 58 has the guard around it for vocals

Click to expand...

It's for the most part true, and I'm sure hundreds of studio guys would agree. If I'm not mistaken, the manuals agree too. :wink:

If I am not mistaken, the SM58 is an SM57 with a different windscreen/pop filter system and a slightly different transformer/tone circuit to compensate. I used to use one all the time to mic an amp. If you do, don't use the same mic for vocals. The mid peak in both channels will make it harder to mix.

SM57 and SM58 have exactly the same element inside -- the ONLY difference is in fact the wind screen, which although it appears different, does not actually change the performance characteristic of the mic.

If you read our in-depth review of the Shure SM57 vs. the Beta57a, we talk about the differences between 57s and 58s, because the only two mics that are identical of the lot are in fact the SM57 and SM58 (i.e. Beta57a and Beta58 are NOT twins in a different shape).

http://www.musicplayers.com/reviews/recording/2007/1207_Shure.php

Scott