How to get a decent guitar sound recorded in the indecent digital age

So.....your guitar tracks suck huh?

That's digital for ya....what can I say, digital sounds crappy, washy, ill defined, messy, like someone is running a hair dryer during your song

BUT assuming you won't be switching to tape...Quality depends on context, what are those guitars playing with? That dictates a lot of whether the sound is "Good" or not, it's really all about relationships.

Anyway...I don't think any of that is what you were looking for, I think I know what you would like to hear more of and less of in your soloed guitar tracks,

These are your key ingredients: Player, Guitar, Amp, Mic, Space, Preamp, Converters

Assuming you like how you are playing, we then move to guitar, I hear a problem here, the Epiphone/Squier doesn't sound NEARLY as good as an American Gibson or Fender, If you want great guitar sounds, you'll want to save up for one.....AMERICAN....I repeat AMERICAN. Next, you want to use brand new strings of the heaviest gauge, whatever you are using go heavier, you'll never get THAT sound till you record with uncomfortably heavy (And new) strings.

Next, roll back the distortion, use the least amount possible, distortion actually makes a guitar sound weaker if there's too much, it's all about finding the sweet spot, but start by looking for less distortion more velocity induced speaker rattle and every other nuance that contributes to quality but is covered by improperly applied distortian

For mics go industry standard, if you can afford a Royer 121 get it, or a Sennheiser 421 if not get a 57, a lot of big records are made with this as the primary guitar mic, it's a dynamic,, dynamics and ribbons are industry standard for guitar

Your amp is tube? Good! Eliminate any digital conversions that you can, that includes digital FX and distortion. SANS AMP makes some great analog "Amp in a box" pedals, you could try direct or mix your direct sound with your mic'ed signal.

I'll tell you three things I really think help guitar sounds, assuming everything else I've mentioned is up to snuff...

1. Tube preamp. You can get insanely cheap ART tube Mic pres/DI's try some, to me they make guitar sound like GUITAR, this won't cost you hardly anything, MORE TUBE amp, preamps anywhere, just MORE TUBE

2. Put the amp in a reasonably reflective room and have a room mic as well as a direct mic, your condenser mics could come in handy for this application, this has made so many guitar tracks I've recorded come to life,

3. EQ LEAVE THOSE BASS AND TREBLE POTS AT NOON! Guitar lives in the mids, this is real-estate you have to share with vocals, so get definition in the mids 500hz to 1000khz, if you go looking for that scooped mid sound your guitar is going to disappear in the mix, consider the other instruments you'll be adding and carve out your zone based on their needs, again dial in your mids, LOWER than where the vocal lives, electric guitar is a pain in a mix, it steps on everyone's toes, the only place it;s relatively alone are in the zones I've mentioned, and don't be afraid to transpose your song based on achieving maximum frequency seperation, so many guitarists write in E or A by default, this tones have natual frequncies attached to them, (A =440hz for example) think about what's being played and what frequency range the guitar can naturally live in.



At the end of the day though, it's all about YOU so the best thing you can do to improve your guitar sound is practice every day, and practice hard, not for a long time but old school "going to the gym" type practice, this will make such a big difference in a month you won't even believe it.

I'm not a metal fan but practice some dumb metal riffs, consider it lifting weights and use a metronome.

Now....go make a hit and send me my royalty check.