STC Ribbon mic help!

Hello guys,

I have the vintage STC 8033A ribbon mic and the Original 3-pin plug in the mic has some broken pins (2 of the Pins are broken).

Does anyone have any experience 'soldering' or fixing these pins without having to send it out to the Coles company?, is there a step-by-step 'tear it down' document or video that explains how that part could possible be fixed/ replaced etc?,

Any leads or help will be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi!

>STC 8033A

I assume you mean an old 4033A?

I know these microphones very well and this is not an easy job. To get to the pins you need to remove the transformer from the stem of the microphone, which is set in place with thick wax.

To do that you need to strip the mic down, removing first the grills, then the ribbon element, then the dynamic element and switch unit.

With the working parts of the microphone safely out of the way you need to heat the stem of the microphone to melt the wax. Then the transformer casing can be slid out and the connector pins accessed from the rear.

One thing to watch is that the wires on these mics are generally rather short, so it is easy to yank off a wire. Take lots of photos along the way so you know how to re-assemble.

Coles don't service the 4033A but will sell you a 4038 output connector, which can be made to fit.

If you meant the 4038 all along then ignore the above. Those are easily replaced by removing the two screws in the base of the microphone.

Drop me a line at xaudia.com if you get stuck.

Cheers
Stewart

API said:

Is there anyone out there that actually owns this mic and uses it???
Any comments ????

Click to expand...

Yes, it's a well known mic, it's a classic. Most of big studios have at least a pair of them.

It's a great microphone,  beautiful on overheads, quite creamy.
I actually like it on everything Acoustic Guitar, vocals, double bass.

It's a vintage type of sound, you have to like that,
like most of Ribbons it's a dark microphone but reacts really nice to EQ, you can boost a lot the High end with EQ and it will still sound good and round.
It's the opposite of chinese Condenser microphones that no amount of EQ can take the high end harshness away