Beginner here -- best cheap mic for modding?

[ChrisSead]

Hi everyone,
Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this: Have been down the rabbit hole of this microphone modding business over the past few days, and just thought I'd dive in and bought myself a K47 type capsule (from 'life long music', anybody used them? UK seller). I have been reading a lot of old posts from here about different mics for installing such capsules -- Behringer B2, MXL 770, etc. My question is: what would you recommend that has a pretty good circuit out of the box that will get me a decent sound (or at least a good representation of this capsule I've just bought) without too much modification of the circuit itself? Currently leaning towards the B2 Pro, as I can find them for ~70 pounds second hand and it's multi-pattern; but just wanted to make sure I'm not missing some obvious better choice.

Feel free to recommend some basic mods to circuits as well, I'm very familiar with soldering and working with PCBs but just don't know much of anything practical about the circuits in these microphones themselves.

Cheers

 

[alphasnk]

I've never modded a microphone, but beware of the polarisation voltage for the k47 capsule, it needs more than 48v, it needs 60v. I'll let the others, more knowledgeable ones, advice you on this topic

 

[Khron]

"Needs" more than 48V? That must mean that mics like the U47FET couldn't possibly work, and/or they utterly suck. Oh wait...

On a more serious note though, the capsule will at least partially dictate what sort of donor mic to go for. If you got a single-sided one, there's no point in springing for a multipattern donor.

 

[ChrisSead]

"Needs" more than 48V? That must mean that mics like the U47FET couldn't possibly work, and/or they utterly suck. Oh wait...

On a more serious note though, the capsule will at least partially dictate what sort of donor mic to go for. If you got a single-sided one, there's no point in springing for a multipattern donor.

Good point. As far as I know the capsule I've bought is dual-sided but I might wait until I receive it so I can know for sure and that will help make my decision

 

[TimG]

I put a nice K-47 style Micparts capsule in an MXL 770. Works great with the existing switch. Nothing could be easier. Great instructions.

Also put one of their RK67c extra special capsules in a MXL 990 and replaced the guts with the Micparts 990f circuit mod which makes for a “very flat mic”. Great instruction video.
Donors for both are cheap if you look around!! For the 990XF mod you can use a dead 990!

 

[Gus]

Read the Microphone Meta
Do searches at this forum
Lots to read I would guess you questions have been answered
Search and read, it might take some time but it will be worth it.

You don't always need to change capsules or circuits or JFETs.

I had a B2 Pro that had a very good capsule in it stock. So changing it might make it worse.

 

[ChrisSead]

Read the Microphone Meta
Do searches at this forum
Lots to read I would guess you questions have been answered
Search and read, it might take some time but it will be worth it.

You don't always need to change capsules or circuits or JFETs.

I had a B2 Pro that had a very good capsule in it stock. So changing it might make it worse.

Thanks for the reply I have been reading this forum a fair bit for the past week or so, hence my thought that the B2 was a good option - there are a bunch of threads here with people praising the components and, yes, the capsule.

But I'm not posting to a DIY forum to buy a mic and leave it stock, am I? I liked the idea of having a 47 ish voiced mic and so bought the capsule and am now figuring out what to put it in. I just thought posting here might be worth it because reading old threads can sometimes miss out the full picture, if there was for example some sudden recent development in the space that would've been a perfect solution and maybe wasn't as well known.

Apologies if that came off sarcastic at all, don't mean it like that - genuinely appreciate the reply

 

[Ricardus]

Why not try building something better? There was a thread here where someone adapted the Neumann KM84 circuit for LDCs, and made boards. Maybe something like that?

 

[shimon]

could someone how to wire a replacement capsule for rode ntk, that supports figure 8 (double sided capsule) apparently the pcb and psu support it, cause they're identical to K2

 

[ChrisSead]

Why not try building something better? There was a thread here where someone adapted the Neumann KM84 circuit for LDCs, and made boards. Maybe something like that?

That could be a fun project for sure. Any chance you could link the thread?

 

[Ricardus]

That could be a fun project for sure. Any chance you could link the thread?

I'll try to find it.

 

[johnchantler]

https://groupdiy.com/threads/fet847...-jonathan-burtner-pcb-layout-by-poctop.61057/