Back when tracks were valuable real estate, few instruments got recorded in stereo. Instead, they were recorded in mono, then panned to a position within the left-to-right sound field. Today, most musicians have access to many more tracks – in some cases 24 or 32 with hardware DAWs, while Mac- and PC-based software DAW track counts are limited only by the computer’s CPU. That allows us to create a more spacious (and more natural) stereo spread. Since the rhythm guitar is often the instrument around which all other tracks are built, it’s important to give it a big sound field. There are several ways to accomplish this.
With an electric guitar, you can usually use your multi-effects processor to convert a mono input signal into an enhanced stereo output via a stereo chorus or panning tremolo effect or by using a delay in which the left side delay is shorter or longer than the right side delay. Some processors allow you to assign a dry signal to one output and the delayed signal to another. By using a very short delay, you can fool the listener’s ear into believing it’s hearing two guitars, just because the left image is offset in time a bit from the right. For acoustic guitar tracks, you can try recording the guitar in stereo, with the mics placed a bit farther out into the room to produce a greater sense of space or “air” around the instrument. Finally, you can double track your acoustic guitar, which is one of Pat Metheny’s favorite tricks for creating a wide stereo image.