Ribbon Mic Mod - Pics and Soundsamples

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MrZpliff

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 15, 2005
Messages
401
Location
Sweden
Hi !

I've - quite heavily - modded my cheap T.Bone Ribbon Mics and thought I'd share the story and results.

Story in short:

My ribbon mic started to sound strange so I opened it up and found that the nickel plating had got loose from
the magnet an stretched the ribbon. Thomann wanted 75 Euros for a new motor, hm... a new mic costs 99 Euros
so decided to fix it myself. I'd already swapped the transformer so no warranty.... I also wanted a stereo pair
reasonably matched soundwise so I bought another one.

Original mic: T.Bone RB-500
New transformer: Lundahl
New magnets: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/
New 2,5 u ribbon material: http://www.lkmusic.co.nz/ribbonfix.htm

rb1.jpg

New magnets mounted. White Hammerite to fixate them.

rb4.jpg

New magnet Vs old - new to the left. Double size. Much stronger.

rb6.jpg

Corrugation rig - from an old CD-drive  :eek:

rb7.jpg

Corrugating. Broke a couple of ribbons, too heavy handed. Nice and easy does it  :)

rb2.jpg

Ribbon mounted. Not as neat  :( as I'd hoped, but I'll do for now.
Also I think the ribbon is a wee bit too tight. It goes kinda boinnng when I tap on the mic... (only on one of them)

rb5.jpg

Motor shoved inside the mic. Extra windshield omitted.

rb3.jpg

XY setup for the soundsamples


And here's how it sounds:


Mics straight into the a Presonus Studio Project, gain cranked to the max. No EQ - Lowcut is needed, but I didn't wanna mess with the sound.
You can do that yourself. Sound is normalised, though.

Some Piano- Clarinet-Harmonica-Acoustic Guitar....
Mics at some distance from the piano a bit above my head. Yamaha piano placed against the wall in my living room. No acoustic treatment. Wife's junk (vases, candles...)  ::) stil left on top of it.
WARNING ! sh*tty random playing. I'm sorry  :-[ but I hope you'll get the picture.
http://www.bitterend.se/Ribbon - PresonusMic - Norm.wav

And the same setup but through the G9. Gained one step from max - outputlevel - max into Presonus line - level in the middle somewhere.
http://www.bitterend.se/Ribbon - G9 - PresonusLine-Norm.wav

How do I post pictures so they don't get so F#**# big ? Edit: seems ok now...


 
MrZpliff said:
I opened it up and found that the nickel plating had got loose from the magnet an stretched the ribbon.

I've seen this on quite a few Chinese ribbon mics.

Nice work! 

I've reribboned all of my Chinese mics with 1.8u foil and replaced the transformers with Cinemag or Altran.  They have become some of my favorite mics.

Cheers,
--
Don
 
It is a problem - i've seen a lot of neodynium magnets in chinese ribbon mics that have lost their plating. Some magnets have almost disintegrated.

I suspect it is related to ingress on moisture, although have no firm evidence, and I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more of this in the future as these mics get older. The one in the photo below was so bad it needed new magnets.

Stewart
 

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zebra50 said:
It is a problem - i've seen a lot of neodynium magnets in chinese ribbon mics that have lost their plating. Some magnets have almost disintegrated.

I suspect it is related to ingress on moisture, although have no firm evidence, and I suspect we'll be seeing a lot more of this in the future as these mics get older. The one in the photo below was so bad it needed new magnets.

Stewart
Exactly what had happened with mine. I hope the KJmagnets are of better quality.
I bought a sheet of 1,8u foil aswell, but thought I'd start with the 2,5 u as it's probably a little easier to handle.
 
okgb said:
Wow those ribbons look pretty crude , no better than the home made ones

The ones in the Avantone? No. They were much WORSE than home made ones, and much thicker too. I recall that they measured about 4 micrometers. The mic got new magnets and new 1.8 um ribbons - much improved!
 
this looks promissing. been wanting to experiment with some china ribbons. 

How are you guys choosing magnets?

I found some place once that sold thin aluminum material but since lost the link.  Is everyoen able to open the ribbon link in the first post?
 
I'd say, your piano is out of tune. : )) Nice sound from the mic though excellent.
I just got a Arthur Fisher ribbon mic here, price / quality is hard to beat.
It sounds fabulous too. I love those ribbon mic's.

-marc
 
mitsos said:
I found some place once that sold thin aluminum material but since lost the link.  Is everyoen able to open the ribbon link in the first post?

For folks in the US, this is a great place for foil:  http://www.lebowcompany.com/

I've also reribboned some Beyer mics and that is tedious!  The ribbons are less than 1/8" wide and about an inch long.  Not an easy task with the 1.8u foil, but they sure sound great when they're done.

BTW, I just finished a session with a French Horn player and used one of my rebuilt, long-ribbon Chinese mics (new ribbon, transformer, and most of the blast protection has been removed).  The guy raved about the sound and was really impressed with the mic.

Cheers,
--
Don
 
Thanks for the foil link Idylldon.   

I have a beyer 500 that needs a new ribbon and an old Philco ribbon mic as well as an RCA 74.    I want to do this myself but the beyer could be tricky.

Any thoughts on the beyer thickness?  I was going to order a sheet of 1.8 and a sheet of 2.5.  I think the RCA is something like .6 to .7 thick but have heard that 2.5 makes them sound more like a RCA77 and less like a PA Mic.

 
fazer said:
Thanks for the foil link Idylldon. 
 

You're welcome! 

I have a beyer 500 that needs a new ribbon and an old Philco ribbon mic as well as an RCA 74.    I want to do this myself but the beyer could be tricky.

The Beyer will be tricky and you'll mess up a few ribbons before you get it right.  Also, Beyer ribbons are corrugated across the length and not the width like most mics.  I just corrugated it the usual way and it works fine and sounds great.

Any thoughts on the beyer thickness?  I was going to order a sheet of 1.8 and a sheet of 2.5.  I think the RCA is something like .6 to .7 thick but have heard that 2.5 makes them sound more like a RCA77 and less like a PA Mic.

I use 1.8 on all my ribbon mics and it seems to work very well. 

Cheers,
--
Don

 
Anyone know of a cheap ribbon mic in the usa to buy and mod.  I am looking at an mxl one with a big body and plenty of room for a different transformer.  Just don't know what model.  Any suggestions?
 
  The longer ribbon types (like the one above) are nice. There are many different brand names using this same design, all most likely coming from the same factory in China. Just check ebay, or all the usual suspects, and you should be able to get one of these for under $120 brand new.
  However, anything you can find in your price range should please, no matter what type of ribbon mic it is. They are so simple, and easy to work on.
  Be sure to try it before doing anything to it. It may be just fine, though the ribbons often stretch over time. There are lots of websites that show how to dismantle the protective layers, and change out the transformer or ribbon,
  MrZpliff has done a nice job of detailing this above. I'm glad he brought this thread back to our attention, though it should be moved into the "Microphone" listings.
 
 
I think the Nady Rsm-2 is almost identical. Just the shape of the headbasket differ. At least to my knowledge.
 
idylldon said:
fazer said:
Thanks for the foil link Idylldon. 
 

You're welcome! 

I have a beyer 500 that needs a new ribbon and an old Philco ribbon mic as well as an RCA 74.    I want to do this myself but the beyer could be tricky.

The Beyer will be tricky and you'll mess up a few ribbons before you get it right.  Also, Beyer ribbons are corrugated across the length and not the width like most mics.  I just corrugated it the usual way and it works fine and sounds great.

Any thoughts on the beyer thickness?  I was going to order a sheet of 1.8 and a sheet of 2.5.  I think the RCA is something like .6 to .7 thick but have heard that 2.5 makes them sound more like a RCA77 and less like a PA Mic.

I use 1.8 on all my ribbon mics and it seems to work very well. 

Cheers,
--
Don

  Thanks for this info, Don. I just received a sheet of 1.8 micron foil from Lebow (nice folks!), and am going to attempt to re-ribbon my Apex 210 (similar to the one in the photos in this thread), as well as a Beyer M500 I just got with a broken ribbon.
I'm just now going thru the links in this thread to refresh my memory before attempting this, and any suggestions anyone has for cutting the foil would be appreciated. I've had it suggested to use a curved X-acto blade to keep from pulling the foil as I cut.
  So far, I have just re-tensioned the Apex, so this will be my first attempt at making a new ribbon with such thin material.
  I have seen it suggested by Marik in other threads that the place where the ribbon will be seated must be well cleaned (makes sense), and the Beyer has some of the old material that seems to be glued in place.
  BTW, I think it would be great if this thread were moved to the "Microphones" lisitngs...can this be done by anyone?
 
tchgtr said:
I'm just now going thru the links in this thread to refresh my memory before attempting this, and any suggestions anyone has for cutting the foil would be appreciated. I've had it suggested to use a curved X-acto blade to keep from pulling the foil as I cut.

I use a small steel straightedge and a new single-sided razor blade to cut the ribbon material.  I've never had it snag using this method.  BTW, I make sure to keep the ribbon material sandwiched between the packing sheets (cardboard and wax paper) when I cut. 

Cheers,
--
Don
 
Thanks Don,
  It was lesson in frustration, but I managed to get a ribbon into the M500 (naturally, I had to start with the most difficult one), and it doesn't sound too bad. It fits the general description that I have read of the mic's character (good low-mids and a bit sibilant for a ribbon), so I lightly super-glued the baffle back into place. Nice...another ribbon mic in the fold.
    Took me about 1.5 hours, and I kept the foil sandwiched between the paper that immediately surrounded the material for shipping, using the "alcohol-wetted q-tip method" described in some of the links I will post below. Hopefully, they will help anybody who searches out this thread.
  I did try the scalpel-style x-acto blade, but it takes a bit of pressure to get a complete cut, so I see why you like the single-sided razor.
  Maybe one day this will go to Marik for a proper re-ribbon, but for now I will try it on a few sources.

http://www.diyaudiocomponents.com/ribboninfo.php?sub=5

http://www.lkmusic.co.nz/ribbonfix.htm

http://make_a_ribbon_mic.tripod.com/id3.html
 
 
 

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