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This may have been discussed extensively before, but I haven't found much, so...

It's a bit shocking sometimes to hear how differently an acoustic sounds recorded vs the "live" sound. Of course, mic techniques are crucial, but some guitars just seem to sound great recorded and others that are otherwise great guitars, do not. For reference, I usually use a spaced pair of omni condensor mics, which is a pretty accurate setup. I've heard that mahogany guitars record especially well, even though they don't have the overtone complexity of rosewood guitars. Don't mean to start a "how much does the back & side wood affect tone" argument, but I generally do hear a difference between rosewood and mahogany guitars, with the rosewood guitars having more "zing" and complexity to the notes. Even with state-of-the-art condensor mics, though, it doesn't always get captured well in a recording.

So, what would you consider if building a guitar especially for recording?

You need to read about Rick Turner and his involvement with D-Tar. They have a preamp for acoustics that has a selector switch for a bunch of different guitars, and it accentuates the sound of the acoustic with sound from a really great one of a similar type. I'm not explaining it very well. Go to http://www.d-tar.com and look up Mama Bear - Never mind just go here: http://www.d-tar.com/mama_bear.shtml

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Wow, thats a seriously trick question. The questions are already multiplying in my head. How will it be used...i.e. what type of music, what kind of musician is playing. Lead notes vs. open strumming, alt. tunings...ugh.
A generalization I would make is that a nice smaller guitar like an OM would make a good studio guitar. I am assuming you want to mic them and worry about an onboard pickup. I always record with the onboard if its available, but only as a filler track or an emergency backup. The mics always do the heavy lifting for me. Buts thats just me. I find that bigger guitars are always more difficult to record if you want clarity. You can always muddy up a guitar or flatten the sound out or whatever you want to do, but if thats what you put down on tape in the first place, you're stuck.
An OM is going to be harder to overdrive the input and will generally have a little less oomph in the room, giving you room to play around a bit. The boomier the guitar, the worse it is for me to record.
My $.02. I'm sure there are many differing opinions. I'm just telling you what works for me.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

My experience from talking to a number of engineers is that they much prefer you to turn up with a mahogany guitar than one from the rosewood family. One studio I used to record at even had a Lowden mahogany/spruce guitar on hand in case. Apparently they feel you get a lot better clarity and separation from a mahogany based guitar which is important in the studio. In the atmosphere of a stage setting then it doesn't matter so much due to the variable acoustics of the venue, but in the clinical surroundings of a studio, clarity, separation and a lack of muddiness matters.

I tend to use either a mahogany or Walnut OM, without onboard pickups, there may be a good one out there but I've never heard one that convinces me. Two mics, one pointing at the bridge one at the 12th fret. I'm doing a lot of recording at the moment with lute and classical guitar and the engineer concerned says he like to get the raw sound from mics. I prefer mics in a performance setting as well, but I can see the case for onboard pickups in that situation.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

This is my experience as well. My 714CE with rose/cedar recorded way better than my friends very nice D-45. The D-45 killed mine in open air, but just didnt record that well.

either maple or mahogany is much easier to record with than the rosewoods. in addition to the problems mentioned above, the greater sustain of the rosewood also creates problems.