New Isolation Box posted by siamese

Like most of you, I'm always trying to get a better electric guitar sound recorded. I just built an isolation box, and it's working GREAT. My gear is a Stratocaster with Dimarzios going into an Orange Tiny Terror (15 watts), into an Eminence Red Fang Redcoat 12" inch speaker mounted in an Epiphone cabinet. I like a classic rock sound...think Steely Dan, Stones, Clapton and so on.

I'm not able to crank a mic'ed amp cuz of the neighbors, etc., so I've mostly used the Line 6 Gear Box virtual guitar amps that came with my Toneport. As you may know, that's an easy, quiet way to get reasonable sounds.

Drives me nuts, though, that I couldn't record with my Orange. I built an iso box that measures about 25 wide, 32inches long, 22 high. It's 3/4 inch MDF with a 2x2 frame, glued and screwed together. I glue lined it with a single layer of foam mattress topper that I got a Walmart. The Epiphone cabinet sits inside the iso box and is mic'ed with a Rode NT1A condenser mic about 2" from the grill. I tested it today with the amp at about 60% power. I feared I'd have the boxy, muffled sound that many report with iso boxes. Any of that was easily eq'd out using Gear Box's "modern" virtual preamp. Rolled off a lot of bass, some of the low mids, added some high mids, and a smidge of treble. STELLAR. Instant great sounding guitar. The box isolates enough that it's easy to talk over a cranked amp, and easy to use headphones to dial in the tone.

Sorry, no sound samples for you, but I can tell you with great certainty that it sounds considerably better than the Gear Box virtual amps. And certainly sounds better than a mic'd amp that isn't cranked. I always found the Gear Box amps usable, but took no joy in using them. The orange through the Eminence on the other hand, is literally music to my ears, and now I can use it!

I've tested it clean, kinda dirty, and overdriven, and the iso box delivers all the sounds. Once recorded, the tracks need no more eq'ing than the Gear Box recordings did. Maybe less, cuz the tracks just plain sound better to begin with. Lots of nuance.

I can't tell you why my box works so well, while others have had mixed results. I would certainly stress the importance of eq'ing as you record. Kinda similar to how you'd eq a dreadnought acoustic going in. It may also be that I'm using a relatively low power amp...a 50 or 100 watter might just be putting too much sound pressure in the box...I dunno. Because Gear Box lets me save my settings on the virtual preamp, all I have to do is bring up "BoxEQ" and I have instant great sound.

Sorry to talk so much, but I've been a home recorder since the 80's, and this is the best and easiest thing I've found for guitar. Cost about 70 bucks altogether.