To record an electric guitar properly you will need of course a electric guitar and amp, microphones, a decent preamp and a DAW or tape machine. 

The guitar is going to sound best when played strongly and confidently.  I advise therefore that you do most of your pracicing on an acoustic guitar that has thicker strings than the electric you will be using.  This will make your finger's stronger and give you a better hold on technique.  The acoustic will not be as forgiving as the electric and cannot be covered with effects, so you will have to solidify you rplaying to sound good.  If you are used to playing on the acoustic then the electric will be much easier to manipulate and play dynamically, also.

I generally suggest tube amps for any style of music.  Metal can be played with certain solid state amps and sound decent, but if you have any extensions to your chords then the amp will not produce them nearly as clearly or well as a tube amp, especially at high volumes.  Also it is more important that the power section of the amp be tube than the preamp section.  Alot of amp manufacturers sell solid state power sections and tube pre sections.  This is not going to give you the benefits of a real tube tone dynamics and articulation, especially at high volumes.   You can get a fairly good tube amp for $500 or less that is plenty loud for recording. 

Now after practicing your material you have to think of what kind of tone you want for the track.  Should it be clean, slightly broken up, overdriven, or heavily distorted?  Do you want a thick warm sound or a thinner more articulate sound?  What kind of Eq should your tone have?  After these considerations you will need to find ways to achieve the tone (or tones) you have decided upon. Do you have acces to multiple amps?  Probably not.  If so then you will want to try different guitars with each amp you have available until you have arrived at a tone in the ballpark of what you are looking for.  If not then experiment with what you have.

Now if you have decided to go with an overdriven tone, you will want to find the right kind of overdrive.  Now if our amp is channel switching you will probably want to use the amps overdrive instead of a pedal, unless of course you need high gain in which you should probably combine the two.  Usually an amps tone will overide that of a pedal and the pedal will just beef up the amp overdrive.  However the pedal is going to affect the tone overall so be selective.   However sometimes amp overdrive is not what you want and you may want to use pedals exclusively.  In this case I would suggest using two pedals through the clean channel.   Stacking the pedals gain stages simulates the tandum effect of tube circuits running one into the other in which they stack the overdive.  This gives a much more indepth tone than one pedal, which tend to sound "on top" of the tone and lack depth.  I rarely suggest using an overdrive pedal through an effects loop as that is after the preamp stage and is usually not as natural sounding as before the preamp stage, though sometmes that might be what you are looking for.  Basically try out all of your options  If you have an EQ then you can use it for even more options. 

Now once you've got the tone to where you like it, I would suggest running the amp loud.  Make a few adjustments to the tone if needed, as it is probable to change a little at the higher volume.  I don't mean crank it up as loud as it will go (though maxing a tube amp does sound good, it tends to ruin the eardrums and disturb the neighbors, pets etc.) just to a point where the tubes are getting a fair amount of power to them.  I would stop a few clicks shy of constant feedback while in front of the amp about 5 or 6 feet away.   Now you want to get the mic placement (some people run direct but I hate that sound, yet again, try all of your options, there is a use for almost any sound).  

First you will want to have at least one decent microphone, such as an SM58 or SM57 dynamic microphone.  These are the lowest qaulity mics I would suggest, anything less and you probably won't get a good tone.  If you have a condenser or ribbon mic that is good I would use that instead or in tandem.  Dynamic mics tend to have a duller and less articualte but more foces sound than condensors.  Condensers are geneally very articulate and have a brighter, yet somewhat edgier high end  They have the most focus with the cardioid plar pattern selected and I would suggest this if it is the only mic in use (to taste of course).   Omni-directional is going to pick up alot of room sound and won't sound as focused or present.  The middle ground between the two would be figure eight which will pick up sound directly behind and in front of the microphone.  Ribbon mics are very articulate and natural sounding, they have a smooth high end and a detailed low end and midrange.  Ribbons are very high maintenance mics though and can be damaged very easily so be careful. 

Hitting different notes on your guitar move the mic around while listening through the headphones until you find the sound that you like.  Set the mic up in that position and record a short take.  If it is what you like then go ahead.   If you can't listen through your headphones or don't know what you are looking for then there are several standard mic techniques that work fairly well.  Try each option out in a short take and liten back and compare to the others.  Pick what you like best. 

First close micing.

The first technique is pointing the mic directly at the center of the speaker cone.  This will give you an upper midrangy sound that is full but kind of harsh in most cases.   The second is to angle the mic so it is pointed towards the angle of the speaker cone (about 45 degrees or so). This is generally known as "off axis". This gives you a little less harsh of a sound and more bass and lower midrange most of the time.  Another good way to achieve a tone is to point the mic down or up so tha the sound passes over the diaphragm instead of directly into it.  This gives another completely different tone than the other two.  I have found this method works very well with dynamic mics such as the SM58, also good with a condenser set to figure 8. 

Condenser mics can be used at a distance (dynamics can too but usually with poor results).  In fact using dynamic mic up close and a condenser distanced can yeid a huge guitar tone.  You can do this with two condensers too if you have them, the close mic set on cardioid and the distance set on omni.  I once recorded a guitar with the omni out in the hall and the amp cranked.  Mixing the two tracks together made an absolutely huge yet articulate guitar tone with a natural reverb and doubling. 

Now once the signal has entered the recording medium you are going to want to get the proper levels.

If you are running onto tape and have an overdriven sound I would run the loudest signal slightly in the red.  This adds harmonics and a little bit of what is deemed tape compression which really sounds good.

If you are using a DAW you will want to run the signal in the yellow as much as you can without clipping.  It is a sensitive issue, but you need to find the balance between keeping your signal out of the red yet as hot as possible because the higher the signal, the higher the definition of the recording.  If your signal is in the green all the time, you will be safe from clipping but will lose signal integrity.  If you go into the red the signal will clip and sound like crap.  This is why having a good brick wall limiter is often handy.  However, if you can keep your signal under control without compresion your tone will end up much more dynamic and alive in the long run.  Save the compression and limiting for vocals and mastering if you can.  With a bit of trial and error, I'm sure you can get it right. It's especially easy to do if you are runnig a heavily distorted guitar as the signal is already compressed.  The more overdrive from the amp the more even the signal.  A clean guitar has much broader range of dynamics generally so you have to be very careful how you play.

After you have gotten everything set you are ready to record!  Now after recording listen back to the track on solo to make sure that all of the signals are appropriately tracked.  Then listen to it with the mix of whatever you are going to keep (excuding scratch racks if you have them).  If everything is good then you may want to double the track or add a second guitar part.  Whatever you want to do with the song.

If you are adding a seperate or doubled track I would suggest differing the recording technique somewhat.  Eq it a bit different, or use a different polar pattern or mic placement, use a different mic all together, a different preamp, even a different guitar or amp.  This way you will have more individuality in the character of the tracks and better seperation in the stereo field, not to mention more frequencies!  It is generally good to pan the seperate guitar parts to opposite sides of the stereo spectrum.  Not necessarally at the same relative distance from the center, but however the rest of the instruments dictate a good balance and compliment.

These instructions should yeild a fairly good guitar tone on your recording, according to your equipment and playing ability. Of course the better your equipment (including computer hardware and software for those using DAW's) the better the result, generally.  The performance is the most deciding factor of course.   

Hope this helps somebody!

Salt and Light

Adrian