Silk is a very resiliant fabric , 70 years of dried spittle caked in .its bound to fall appart and make a mess ,
A plastic type fabric might melt a bit when you glue it to the frame .
I have one of the Elvis era models and one of the later ones , they sound reasonably well matched , I think the capsule in the Elvis era mic I transplanted from the more modern 55SH . Im not sure how the capsule differed from early to late models . maybe you can post a pic of the original capsule Mic?
I wish now I had kept my third mic body , not sure where it went in the end , I think I have a broken capsule around someplace also , maybe theres such a thing as a recone kit for it Im not sure .
Its more of an EQ effect mic , thats how I tend to use it , used backed off in the room on drums they make a great ambience mic , on guitar cabs it might tend to sound screechy but you always have the tone on the amp to scoop out the mids a bit , voice ,if you want a contrast to the usual condenser mic'd vocal its great , if your looking for a slightly more aggressive rock sound of any kind ,it just works , minor EQ'ing and your ready to hit record .
Hi-z mode might be useful if you want an even more Lo-Fi sound and you can add extra dirt with stomp boxes or take the output directly to a tube guitar amp .
If I had another donor 55 body Id figure out a way of mounting up an Sm-7 capsule in it , its the natural upgrade , now you have a top of the range dynamic mic for studio or stage with all the vibeyness added .
