If you are a guitar player you will find that recording guitars is the most difficult challenge... most fun, but definitely most difficult.
You are going to be very picky because you KNOW what a guitar is supposed to sound like. And capturing that sound is a challenge, because microphones don't hear like we do.
It is very tempting to continue adding microphones to try to fix problems that you perceive. This (almost) always makes thing worse.
So first recommendation - calibrate your ears, and not with your guitar, but with other recordings that you enjoy. Get used to what a guitar sounds like coming out of a loudspeaker instead of making the direct trip through the air.
Next up, start with ONE microphone. Try to find a great spot with just one microphone.
Then, of course, it's time to be crazy!
My personal preference, for most of my guitars, in my room, is small capsule condensors up close, large capsule condensors a little further away, and a stereo ribbon even further away. But that's a rule of thumb kind of thing, and if I thought about it I probably don't use it as often as I think I do<G>!
One of my favorite single microphone placements is next to my right ear, or shoulder height. I'd seen tracks recorded that way, and I liked them, and then the logic hit me - that's what I hear (more-or-less) when I play. It has little to do with what I hear when I'm in the audience, and I do have to remember that.
Recently a friend of mine suggested a single microphone in front of my nose. Try it! It works.
It really is all about placement, and placement will differ for every instrument, every track, and every space.
Favorite microphones:
For an accurate, lifelike sound nothing beats a Schoeps CMC6 with the hyper-cardiod capsule in a sub-stellar room, and the cardiod if the room is well behaved. You'd expect the omni capsule to be even better in a well behaved room, but in my experience it isn't. (and boy do I wish I owned a pair of them!)
For a nearly accurate recording with some real attitude I like the KM-84. Wish I had a pair of these too!
From my own locker...
- The AKG C-451 with the cardiod pattern works well as a single microphone on most of my guitars.
- I also use the Earthworks SR-77s as a pair when I want stereo. These are really accurate microphones, and insanely sensitive to placement.
- An oddball microphone, the TEAC PE-120, works really well on my D-18. Not sure why.
- I also have a pair of AKG c-61s (predecessor to the C-451) which I like, but they are noisier than the C-451.
- The only two large capsule microphones I've ever had consistently good results with are the Neuman TLM-193 and the Shure KSM-32. Every once in a while an AKG C-414 will sound great, but I get frustrated trying to place it. The Blue Dragonfly is a quirky microphone, I love it on mandolin and smaller body guitars.
- And I have a Royer SF-12 that I use as a room microphone. I love it. It works up close too, but I like it better as a room microphone.
Probably more than you wanted to know...