How I get my recorded sound

Every now and I get an email from someone asking how my clips were recorded. Here's a photo essay that illustrates how I record my guitar sound most of the time. It might not be the best way in the world but considering I do most of my recording late at night, this works out well. The isolation is great - I can crank may amp to a decent level without making a racket and at the same time it keeps other sounds from getting recorded, like the sound of me stomping on pedals..

Marshall JCM800 50W 1X12" combo

I leave the amp off and run external power to the Celestion 12" mounted inside the enclosure. The amp is sitting inside the top lid of the roadcase for my Kelsey 2/3 16 channel board. The roadcase acts as an isolation box, see below.

Sennheiser guitar mic

Inside the foam-lined road case I have a Sennheiser guitar mic. Sennheiser makes the best wireless mic systems avaialble, and this guitar mic is no slouch. I love it because I can hang it in front of my amp during a gig - no stand needed, an the voicing is perfect for close micing a guitar speaker.

Amp in case

The amp goes in the case pointing down and the lid goes on.

Isolation box

Now it's an isolation box with one wire running to the speaker, and the other wire running from the microphone to the mixer. I usually use the Fender Twin to power the speaker.

Mixer

The signal then runs over to my Kelsey 2/3 16 Ch board. I used to build and service these things back in the 80's, during my long stint with Dallas Music Industries (aka DMI, Inc. and Crest Audio)