An electric guitar is capable of a wide range of sounds and is unique in that the amplification used adds to the texture of the sound. The single most important detail in getting great electric guitar sounds is that the sound coming out of the amp should be great. This is determined by the guitar, the amp & speakers and the person playing it. It is much easier to get a good recorded sound if the guitar/amp setup is a good sounding one. Making sure that the guitar sounds good first can save you a lot of time later.

Guitar Setup
Make sure the guitar is free from buzzes and rattles, the strings are relatively new and the intonation is set properly. See some of the guitar maintenance articles on this site, or take the instrument to a professional repairperson.

Micing
It is important to remember that from a recording viewpoint, the amp and speakers are part of the instrument and should be treated as such. Open backed guitar cabinets emit sound from both the front and the rear of the cabinet, and you must often capture both to reproduce the real sound of the amp. The key to getting a great guitar sound is to constantly experiment and apply some basic physics.

Usually a guitar amp is miced both close and with a distant room mic or two. This gives you a range of sounds to play with. In the smaller home studio, or those with an unflattering room sound, you may want to omit using the room mic. If you are going to use a room mic, take time to find a spot in the room where the amp sounds good and a spot distant from the amp which sounds good. Use the most sophisticated measuring instruments you own (called ears) and walk around the room looking for sweet spots - you'll know them when you find them. Try different mics, try moving them closer and farther, try different angles, try putting the amp in a corner, try putting the amp on a concrete floor, try it on a wood floor, try it on a floor with carpeting, just try anything!

Close Mic - The close mic will usually be a dynamic mic such as a Shure SM57 or a Sennheiser MD421. They can handle the volume levels and have enough frequency range to cope with the limited response of an electric guitar. Set up the mic right against the amp's grill cloth, pointing it at a slight angle from the outer rim of the speaker toward the center. Moving the mic towards the side will result in a mellower sound, as will moving the mic away from the cloth. The close mic gives a dry, ballsy, detailed sound.

Multi-speaker Cabinets - If your guitarist has a multi-speaker guitar cabinet, ask him which of the speakers has the better sound - (he should know) and close mic that one. There is nothing to gain by micing more than one speaker.

Room Mic: For the room mic, place a condenser mic anywhere from half a metre to two metres in front of the amp (at the same height as the amp) and point the mic at one of the speakers. The further the mic is from the amp, the more bass and less midrange it will have. More room sound will be picked up - making the sound bigger.

If you have enough tracks on your recorder, print the two mics to seperate tracks to be able to decide the balance between them later, otherwise mix them to the desired balance when recording to a single track - just be careful not too add in too much room mic.

Compression
Use compression on the close mic. Set the compressor at a 3:1 ratio and adjust the threshold so that the compressor is usually working, but not squashing the signal too much.

Equalisation
The Electric guitar is not a natural instrument, so the only EQ rule is: Get the sound you want!

Adding 100-250Hz will give you more bottom, rolling off 300 to 500Hz will eliminate some of the nasal quality, adding a touch of 700Hz will create a throaty or woodsy sound, adding a pinch of 1K will give the guitar more edge, adding 3K will give the guitar more bite, and adding 5, 8, or 10K will make it brighter.

Doubling Guitar Parts
Doubling a rhythm guitar and panning the two tracks hard left and right can make the guitars sound huge. But consider what works best for the song. Is the rhythm guitar the featured instrument, or will there be several other guitars competing for space in the stereo spread? Sometimes less is more.

If you do decide to double the guitar, think about altering the sound on the double track to give you more thickness. You can change guitars and keep the amp the same, or vice versa. Change pickup settings if using the same guitar on the second track. EQ the two tracks differently (scoop mids out from one and boost the bass and treble, and do the inverse for the second guitar). Make sure the performance is really tight though, matching the first track's phrasing. Otherwise you might end up with a cluttered mix that would be better off with only one track of guitar.

Mixing
Start with the close mic - this should comprise the bulk of your guitar sound. If it sounds good as it is, stop and don't add any room mic. For a slightly more distant, but fuller sound, bring up the fader on the room mic. Slowly add that signal to the close sound. You'll have the detail of the close mic, but with the fullness that comes with adding some "room" sound to it.

You don't need to mix the guitar much louder than the other instruments to make it sound big. It's all about how well you record it to begin with. If you've done that right you'll be in great shape for the mix.