My new DIY mic in the works -gear porn

OK, I don't normally like to post gearporn of unfinished stuff, but I think this is looking pretty and I'd like to share the metalwork source for anyone who may be currently building a mic. At the rate I am going, and with my backlog on my bench, this mic won't be populated for another few months.



I'm making two of them. The capsule is the BLUE lolipop (pre controversy) for the AKG 451. I used a VR-1 extension tube for a threaded mount. I still have the male end from te VR-1 to mount to the bottom of another capsule too for interchangibility. Heck, I can even screw at C451 head on and have the worlds largest pencil mic.

The metal is from www.lawrencemetal.com. The tube is black powdercoated steel. The end caps are chrome plated (brushed) brass caps, designed to mount over the tubing.

Now I just have to fgure out what is going inside. Gus has some brilliantly evil ideas for me :twisted: . I said he had carte blanche, as long as we could mount a frickin' laser in there somewhere.

You know, now that I think about it, it wouldn't be so stupid to have laser sights on microphines. Imagine being able to point a mic exactly 1" of center cone on a speaker....

-Chris

Wooow! What a gorgeous mic! It look really pro. :thumb:
I' ve got a question to you chris: what is a vr1?
I wondering how to have a same kind of mount for this type of capsule.
Great work! :green:

Dang yo! That's hot. You can take off the capsule and do some curls.

what is a vr1?

Click to expand...

It is an extension for the AKG C451 series of mics. It basically connects the body to the capsule by a long thin tube. I think the idea was to make the make a bit more invisible for television work.

... i feel like an idiot!
i see a lot of these items on ebay, and i found myself thinking that broadcast engineers did strange things with mics... :shock: Never thinking about using this that way!!!
Thank you Chris and rob!!! :grin:
Remi G.

[quote author="Rob Flinn"]I think the idea was to make the make a bit more invisible for television work.[/quote]

One such example is the "Mastermic".

(Used on super-brainbox British TV quiz show: "Mastermind"... -Which my mum was on!) The chair is famous and now owned by Magus Magnusson, the founder and 'face' of Mastermind. When he retired, the BBC gave the chair to him as a gift.



http://www.ukgameshows.com/index.php/Mastermind

Keith

over the years, bob barker wielded a great collection of "made smaller for tv" type mics.

dave

Hey Emperor

That is impressive. It got me thinking as to how I might be able to make a lollipop design mic without laying out the cash for one of those capsules.

I really like the look of the chrome on black.

I was thinking of cutting a brass ring off say an end cap for a 2" or 2.5" diameter pipe. Wouldn't be too hard to hammer the large mesh into shape and solder two halves together. Would have to solder in say three nuts around the perimeter where the mesh joins. Three screws through the ring would secure the screen.

For attaching the mic, I was thinking about using a threaded pipe like for a lamp. That would let the wires pass through and you could secure each side with a washer and nut. Would probably need to use a strap mount for the capsule like the ADK type Dale suggested for his capsules. Maybe use something like plumbers tape that might go right over the threaded pipe. A rubber tube over the lamp theaded pipe could make it look nice between capsule and mic body (where the Blue logo is on yours).

Lord, that almost sounds feasible and I have some mic building coming up.
I would love to have that look.

Looks like Lawrence will cut the pipe and sell as little as a foot or two. Nice.

Hi sbranco,
i recently bought a lollipop mic head that is definately unfunctionable. Just for the hardware...
I simply wanted it for the outside look, the capsule nearly falls apart, it is VERY old and dynamic. More the kind of bad museum ware. It was hold by three steel springs inside damped with a rotten orange foam.
You can get such lollipop heads quite cheap at ebay if they look hopelessly and definately non functioning. I polished the metal parts, the grills are still corroded, a black textile was glued on inside. Maybe i try a chemical type of cleaning for it. I even thought about silver or gold galvanic bath afterwards to give it a real exclusive look :grin: .
A decent capsule like the one from dale or a peluso or whatever should fit very nicely into that.

Quite worth a try!

Kind regards

Martin

very good looking :thumb: whats the cost of the metal work?

Good!

Could you post the exact models you used for tube and cap ends?

Thanks!

Synthi

Nice! :thumb:

I dont have the order invoice handy, but I think the parts should be easy to find on the website. The end caps are the type designed to fit over the tubes.

-Chris

[quote author="soundguy"]over the years, bob barker wielded a great collection of "made smaller for tv" type mics.

dave[/quote]

Wasn't his main mic a Sony ECM 510 ?

The mic looks cool as hell but the shock mount looks like it's off a $59 mic. I would custom engineer one that looks at home on that mic.

[quote author="ohhey"] I would custom engineer one that looks at home on that mic.[/quote]

Sounds great. When can you get started? :green:

IMHO, I have never seen a DIY shock mount that looked better than a $25 Chineese mount, nor worked as well. That includes the wooden donut on that $6,000 Swieden U-47. That thing looks like a damn salad bowl or a giant napkin ring. Peluso sells some nice birdcages for reasonable prices though and I might look into that later on (after I actually build the mics, priorities after all....).

-Chris

[quote author="ohhey"][quote author="soundguy"]over the years, bob barker wielded a great collection of "made smaller for tv" type mics.

dave[/quote]

Wasn't his main mic a Sony ECM 510 ?[/quote]

I remember those long ones that they'd hold from about the waist. They could direct it over to the contestants while holding it from the same spot.

[quote author="Emperor-TK"][quote author="ohhey"] I would custom engineer one that looks at home on that mic.[/quote]

Sounds great. When can you get started? :green:

IMHO, I have never seen a DIY shock mount that looked better than a $25 Chineese mount, nor worked as well. That includes the wooden donut on that $6,000 Swieden U-47. That thing looks like a damn salad bowl or a giant napkin ring. Peluso sells some nice birdcages for reasonable prices though and I might look into that later on (after I actually build the mics, priorities after all....).

-Chris[/quote]

I made some for my C414s out of delta faucet O-rings and a chrome hoop towel track ones. They were very cool looking and worked better then anything else. What you need here is a felt lined clamp at each end just inside the caps. You could use wire ties to attach the large O-rings to is and to a large hoop in the center with a mic stand attachment on it. The O-rings don't streach out and stay taunt so once you get them tight the mic can bob but it can't get loose. The only hard part is making the joint to hold the mic stand adapter to the towel ring strong enough.

Check out www.shockmount.com . $25 each. Cheaper than the Chinese spring-loaded type.

He uses elastic, however, not rubber, so heavier mics CAN slip through (notice the angle at which he shows the U87 mounted). They do work great on my Scott Hampton-built C12 clones, however (lightweight aluminum tubing), and a lot better looking than the Chinese things.

They also work great for the MXL/Royer mics (I have a pair of those with these as well... much nicer looking than the MXL shocks IMO). The MXL's have ridges along the body (the 2001 does, anyway) which makes pulling them out of the shock almost impossible.

I also have these on my pair of RCA BK-5B ribbon mics that had no yoke mounts when I got them. These shocks work perfectly with them and are MUCH better at isolating these mics than the stock yoke or the optional RCA shockmount.

You could build something similar, no doubt, but at $25, it's worth it to me to have a few of these around for various things.

JC