Dead Neumann U87 capsule, need repair / replacement

A friend of mine found a couple u87 mics, in very bad shape. One was working, one wasn´t. He gave me the nonworking one, and i installed a new fet (need to custom-bias it) , couple new caps and at least the amp is working fine. The metal barrel even has a hole on it !!! The head assembly, the plastic part with the pins was all burned and the pins...there aren´t any. The capsule, it has been brutalized, punctured and miscleaned, so i need a new capsule to make this 87 work again. It costed me almost nothing so i want to invest some money on it and keep it for myself. I also installed new pins on the head assembly.

My options are :

New original capsule - lots of money !
Reskinning the damaged capsule
New replica, Peluso cek67 ?

What do you think? i like the idea of the peluso capsule, specially for cost reasons, but i don´t know how much a reskinning on this capsule will cost. I don´t even know if this damaged capsule is worth something for someone who do reskinning.

The destroyed pins :



The capsule :



After installing the new pins :




Thanks !

The diaphragm itself doesn't look that bad actually. Are you 100% sure it's not functioning? You might be lucky to at least have one working side (so that you can use the microphone in cardioid mode). Try measuring the capacitance if you can. Reskinning is a good option otherwise if done properly. The sound of that mike is mostly in the capsule, please don't replace it with a Chinese part.

Martin

Yep, the diaphragm is punctured and it is missing gold...definitely dead, and i have 6 87´s at hand to compare.

And the peluso capsules actually have very good reputation, as the most critical part is done in the states IIRC

Thanks

[quote author="Silvas"]Yep, the diaphragm is punctured[/quote]

OK, didn't see this in the pic. New skins then.

[quote author="Silvas"] and it is missing gold...definitely dead, and i have 6 87´s at hand to compare.[/quote]

Some missing gold might not be the end.

[quote author="Silvas"]And the peluso capsules actually have very good reputation, as the most critical part is done in the states IIRC[/quote]

Aware that the diaphragms are mounted in the US on these Chinese-made capsules, but speaking from personal experience I was less than impressed with the sound. Try contacting Thiersch in Germany for a quote on new skins, Neumann does not do these anymore.

Martin

Thanks for the advice, i´ll do that.

BTW, it´s missing a lot of gold !

Spoke to the people at thiersch today, about 120 eur plus shipping per capsule. Seems like a good price. Any other reskinning options but in the U.S ?

Didn't look that bad to me. Looks are decieving. That puncture may be just a dent. I've seen plenty of those. I have some and they still work.
What is that piece of slag on the capsule mounting plate?
it looks like solder.
That could be a culprit.
I bet there is a nonconnection inside the capsule. Did you try to scope it and see if it was polarizing? If it isn't, it isn't getting voltage and if voltage is being shown before the capsul, it's inside it and it's junk-ish, unless you are brave enough to open it, but then you'd have to restretch it.
Yep, get a Peluso.

Have you googled?
Walker Microphones

Yes, of course i googled but not found much on reskinning capsules.

The puncture is in fact a puncture, a big one, but you can´t tell from that picture. And that´s the less damaged side...

I´m not a microphone expert, so, how can i test that the capsule is polarizing correctly ? anyway, i´m going to repair it, just want to learn something new in the process.

Thanks !

Silvas, where can you get those pins from?

Thanks

Silvas said:

Spoke to the people at thiersch today, about 120 eur plus shipping per capsule. Seems like a good price. Any other reskinning options but in the U.S ?

Click to expand...

I can only recommend Thiersch for reskinning. I've send my entire M49 mic including psu to them for reskinning. They phoned me and asked, if they were allowed to  bring the microphone back to original specs. I received a completely renovated microphone with a reskinned capsule for a ridiculous price.
Bernd

Also recommend Thiersch.  Nice people!