What am I missing about this acoustic guitar recording tutorial???

I was reading this tutorial from Recording Mag and there is something I am not getting about it - please help state this another way if you can: Text from RM: "If, as often happens, you want to double the acoustic guitars on a song, the first track is recorded in the above manner (previously described – two tracks recorded simultaneously: one with left mic on guitar neck – one with right mic on guitar body) . But don’t set up two more channels to record the second acoustic track: besides taking up two more tracks, you should remember that when there are two acoustics doing more or less the same thing, they’ll typically be panned hard left and right. Therefore, the easy way to double the acoustic guitar is to simply take one of the previously recorded tracks out of record, and put the second acoustic track on top of one channel of the first pass of acoustic. Look what happens; by disarming one track (with the push of a single button), you didn’t have to move any microphones, you didn’t have to re-patch anything, you didn’t need to change the settings on the preamp or the compressor, and you didn’t even have to change the pan setting on the console -- you just hit one button and the second guitar pass is ready to record. And as a bonus, the guitarist will hear his first guitar on one side of his headphones, and the new pass will be on the other side. This makes it much easier to hear what he played on the first track as well as what he’s playing on the second pass. This method saves quite a bit of time when recording the two acoustics, but also saves time when mixing" I don't get if the author is talking about replacing the track that is un-armed with the new "double" or blending on top of it? Anyway there is something confusing about it......

Hi there silvercn. Yes I found that a bit confusing at first but it is simple really. All they are saying is that initially you are using two tracks to record one acoustic guitar. The two mike positions will allow for some tonal variations and even a slight stereo image if you panned it that way.

So rather than create two more tracks and arm them in order to record a second acoustic part they are just saying record over one of the first two tracks with the second acoustic guitar part. ie if one track was positioned on the neck and the second track was positioned near the sound hole then for just the one acoustic guitar part you have the luxury of two mike positions. But what they are saying I think is to just record over the sound hole track of the first acoustic with the sound hole mike of the second part.

You still have only two tracks but two guitars instead. The first acoustic acoustic guitar is going to be the neck position and the second acoustic guitar will be the sound hole position. So you loose the two sounds on one guitar concept but get two guitars instead which is going to probably sound better.

I say creating tracks is not a big deal and I would be inclined to create two new tracks and record the second guitar that way and then you still have two mike positions on both guitars if you need them.

I think all they were really saying is that you get a little different recording tone from the 2 mic's positioned at different parts of  the guitar.  The one at the neck captures more of an even trebble tone and the one positioned to behind the sound hole, more towards the rear of the guitar, captures more of the bass tones.  Then, they are blending them together to taste.  When they positioned the mic overhead, they were trying to capture more of the room tone and blend that in.  In my mind it is similar to recording a bass by micing an amp and direct in at the same time, then blending the two tracks to taste.

As Jeff stated, if you want more of a two guitar stereo sound, with one guitar panned left and one right, I would still record the guitar twice, just with 2 mic's each time, using this method.  So, you would have a total of 4 tracks.