microphone for recording classical guitar

What microphone is best for just recording one track...that of classical guitar?  Should it be a USB connection?  I'm just learning on my Sonar X1 Essentials and my microphone is garbly..it's an old one and has an 1/8th inch plug..  Thanks for any suggestions.. I'm going to check out Best Buy tomorrow by phone to see what they have.

LOL! I just read this and was thinking, dude really doesn't like USB mics!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edit to add:  Duplicate posts to which you were referring, now deleted.  Karyn

I have to say that USB mics have improved considerably over the years. They used to be cheap and, as mentioned, mostly designed for podcasting. However I picked up an Audio-Technica AT2020 USB mic a few years ago to take on the road for doing narration, and aside from being of great interest to the TSA when you have a cylindrical object in your luggage, it's been a really rugged mic that sounds like, well, the non-USB 2020. I also checked out an MXL 007 which is an inexpensive stereo condenser mic, and it performed much better than I expected.
 
However many of these are made to be class-compliant, which means they use non-specialized drivers. As a result there is latency, so if you want to monitor the mics, you'll want to use an interface's direct monitoring.
 
There's no technical reason why USB mics can't sound good, but there are cost constraints - a company is not going to put a $100 A/D converter sub-system in a $200 mic. But as converters get better and cheaper, USB mics will follow suit.

Question for the original poster quick... could you help us by providing your system specifications (System model, O/S, equipment you are using)?
 
I am making the assumption that "1/8"" jack means you are plugging into the onboard audio or an internal sound card, but "garbly sound" can be attributed to other aspects of your system as well. I am concerned to trudge down the path of "mic" alone here.

I would look into Earthworks QTC 30 (Matched Pair). There awesome and are excellent for capturing classical guitar recordings and can be used for many more things.
 
Stay far away from USB Mic's. Do not like them!!! 
 
CJ

Hi kslampi,
There are lots of answers to this question. Microphones are like shoes, you can get a different mic for every situation and you can spend as much as you'd like on them. There aren't really hard and fast rules for "best", but there are some generally accepted guidelines. For acoustic guitar, most folks reach for small diaphragm condensers (SDC's) first, so that's probably where I'd start if I were you. As far as which one, that's really a question of personal preference and price. AKG, Audio-technica and Rode make popular inexpensive SDC's, but I'd probably look at one of the boutique mic makers/modders before going that route (Advanced Audio, Oktavamod and JJ are probably good places to start). If you have some money to spend I'd probably start by looking at Schoeps and Gefell. The Earthworks QTC30's that CJ mentioned are commonly used, but I'm not a giant fan of them...I'd use them as room mics on a choir or a string ensemble, but not much else. My pair pretty much just sits in their case. That doesn't mean they're bad, it just means I'm not really a fan of how they sound for most of my applications. Poke around the interwebs and you'll find lots of people that love them.
 
The other option you should consider is a pair of good general purpose large diaphragm condensers (LDC's). The thing about LDC's is that they'll generally sound pretty good on most things. The same is not generally true for SDC's. I'd feel just fine putting my U87 or Beesneez Mahalia on an acoustic guitar, a vocalist, a guitar cab or a clarinet, but I would never put my Gefells in front of a cranked Marshall or a loud rock vocalist (and never, ever my QTC's).
 
Hope that helps,
Dean

Was in a musici store today and just out of curiosity asked if they had any USB mikes.. They said everyone would bring them back and trade them for a real mike so they stopped stocking them