OK, so here's the story with my figure-8 mode not working. I tested the backplates on my capsule and I had a dead short. I was like, "Well this is it!" I talked to John Peluso, and he asked me to send it back so he could have a look at it. So I unmounted it from the capsule mount (I tested it out of circuit but still in the mount because it was just easier) and sent it back. Two days later he gets it, and says there's no continuity between the backplates, and the capsule tests perfectly in spec. So I was thinking to myself I must be crazy. I literally tested the capsule a half a dozen different ways just to be sure, and there was continuity. So I went and tested the capsule in the working 87, and it tested fine. No continuity. Then I remembered something from when I took it out of the capsule mount. The center screw was sitting high, a little proud of the white plastic arc piece, and I just instinctively tightened it down without even thinking. Skip ahead two days later and it occurred to me that had to be the issue. I never tested the capsule AFTER I took it out of the mount. The thing is, the Peluso U87 capsules have a translucent piece of gold tape going all the way around the edge of the capsule. I'm talking about the screw that holds the plastic arc piece to the upright that mounts to the mic body. So at that point I was thinking maybe the top of the philips head screw had some burrs on it from a slipped screwdriver, and maybe they pushed through the tape causing the short.
So cut to today, I get the capsule back, and I mount it in the mount (mind you, I had already tightened the screw down and for extra safety I put a small piece of electrical tape over the screw), put it in the mic and solder the leads to the PCB, and it works fine.
So I called John on the phone to let him know, and he said it also could have been one side of the screw sticking up more, and tightening it into the mount might have caused one plate to shift a tiny bit, and caused an internal short in the capsule. He says the tolerances are that tight.
Well since I had already tightened the screw down, I couldn't test for which one it was, but the screw theory is the only one that seemed to logically satisfy both conditions (that I saw continuity and John didn't).
Anyway, the mic now works great. It's probably 2dB quieter than the other, but John says that's in spec for a U87, even from Neumann.
