TAXI.com

Hi All,
I went to the convention and took Fett's class on guitar miking. I've been cutting acoustic tracks since I got back with a pair of borrowed Shure SM81's. Fett recommended SE electronics SE-1A's matched pair. I need to buy my own, and am definately trusting Fett's judgement on the SE's, I don't have that kind of money to put on my own Shures and my buddy wants his back. Does anyone own a Gauge ECM84 (or a pair of them)? After the conference, I've been checking the Gauge mics out and am impressed with them. The ECM84's are sold out for now, and I do need something good for acoustic guitar recording. I'm tempted to wait till the Gauge guys get more in stock. Anybody out there have experience or advice?

Thanks,
Pat B.

I have a pair of them. I have to say I just haven't been able to take a shine to them the way I have the 87. My acgit tracks are either the gauge ecm-87 alone about a foot away from the 12th fret or together with an sm57 with the gauge down on the body of the guitar and the 57 somewhere on the neck. Although I'm never super happy with the way the 57 sounds for my git. I need to spend more time with the 84s and see what they can do.

Thanks for the info Tele. I think I'm gonna get the se mics, or wait and get a pair of sm81's. I had been using my main mic a at-4050 like you use the ecm87, but I really like the sm81's sound using Fett's technique. At this point anything else I feel like i'd be compromising.

what was Fett's technique?

I own a matched pair of Gauge 84's and I like them a lot -- but they've been gathering dust since I acquired both a Gauge 47 and 87 and started using this technique:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1WTxC2Lqg4

I've never had a chance to use an SM81, but there's no question it's the industry standard for acoustic guitar. If you know you like it, save your beans and hold out for it -- you'll never "outgrow" it.

Well I'm going to retract what I said about the gauge 84s. I pulled one out and did a 2 mic acoustic track this weekend with a gauge 87 down near the sound hole, and the 84 up on the neck; both about 12" away. I'm happy with the results, like this mic better than my sm57 for the same application. My pre-amps are consumer grade at best. In fact the 84 was going through a cheap Yamaha Mixer then out the alt buss to the line in on my sound card. You can hear the track here: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10133553

Anyone have the Gauge 47, the big guy that comes with its own preamp? Got clips?

teleblaster,

I picked up both a 47 and an 87 at the rally. I'll try to get some clips up in the next couple days. On acoustic guitar, compared to the 87, I'd say it's less bright and shimmering. Tamer transients. Rounder, warmer, smoother. It does seem to have a bit of noise, but nothing outrageous. I like them both, but I think I'll actually go to the 87 more frequently.

On the other hand, I just tried doing a track with my 84s in an XY configuration, and I ended up with this crazy distortion on both tracks. I don't know what happened -- I'm positive I didn't overload on input, and I store them in their boxes, in their zip-bags, with their silica gel packs.

Oh, and FYI, the 47 is a tube mic and that big box that comes with it is just the power supply, not a preamp.

teleblaster wrote:Well I'm going to retract what I said about the gauge 84s. I pulled one out and did a 2 mic acoustic track this weekend with a gauge 87 down near the sound hole, and the 84 up on the neck; both about 12" away. I'm happy with the results, like this mic better than my sm57 for the same application. My pre-amps are consumer grade at best. In fact the 84 was going through a cheap Yamaha Mixer then out the alt buss to the line in on my sound card. You can hear the track here: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10133553

Anyone have the Gauge 47, the big guy that comes with its own preamp? Got clips?

That sounds nice.

Stuart

Thanks for the info guys. I've been reluctant to borrow the sm81's again so soon, but have been experimenting with my AT4050 (really the only great mic I have) and mixing the piezo in for a little hi freq. The 4050 has a great low end, but it doesn't shine on the highs like the 81's. Fett's technique with matched pairs was one about 10-12 inches out from the 12th fret angled toward the body and the other a little below the bridge angled in. The first time I tried it with the sm81's I thought it was the best guitar tone I'd ever recorded.

Funny that you post this today. I bought the ECM-87 at the 2009 Rally. Because it took weeeeeeeks for them to deliver it, they threw in the ECM-84 as a bonus! Well, today was the first time I ever really tried it (the 84) out. I'm recording quasi-ukulele tunes on my classical guitar and thought the 84 would be an interesting choice. It sounds great! As far as trying out some of the other techniques such as combining the 87 and 84, I've yet to try that. That said, I have used the 87 quite a bit on acoustic guitar and found it works really well considering the price.

Steve