Painting my donor bodies (construction thread)

[Pariah Zero]

A rusty or dirty old mesh would probably look best.

The issue with either is rust and dirt are likely to flake off and float (or be blown) onto the mic capsule.

Paint & clearcoat don't work well with the double-layered wire meshes in headbaskets; it fills the gaps and the thing becomes less of a basket and more of a bag.

Don't get me wrong - reporters in Florida showed mics work when you roll a bag over 'em during Hurricane Ian.

It's just not the best thing for sound quality.

 

[CanuckProducer]

New weekend, new paint...

I'm recovering from a colonoscopy, so I'm not too ambitious... I have one experiment for paint adhesion over the chrome paint, one traditional mask & shoot, and a WGTCenter U87ish body:

The paint adhesion is boring, so no pictures.

The traditional mask & paint is off to a decent start: there's a bit of tape lift in a spot I'm covering anyway, so I'm not concerned. More colors to come.
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Next up is the WGTCenter U87 body: before & after clearcoat: this one is fairly simple, with just a crystal mask.
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Love the dar red mic. I too played around with different paints and colors, but the problem I found was that in 'real studio life', paint inevitably got scratched through normal studio use. Often you just don't have time to be super cautious cuz the meter's ticking, you're rushing to set up a session. Paint sctaches

 

[soliloqueen]

make sure to sand the top so that the basket has bare metal to ground through, or you may run into issues with the basket failing to correctly act as a faraday cage

 

[Pariah Zero]

make sure to sand the top so that the basket has bare metal to ground through, or you may run into issues with the basket failing to correctly act as a faraday cage

What?!? And bring PHYSICS into art?

Seriously, though - I didn't attempt to paint the baskets, surface tension is the PITA that it is at that scale - having a continuous bridge of paint film in all of the holes kind of ruins the point of a basket too. It's so much less trouble on many levels to just leave the factory plating in place (and electrically intact).

Love the dar red mic. I too played around with different paints and colors, but the problem I found was that in 'real studio life', paint inevitably got scratched through normal studio use. Often you just don't have time to be super cautious cuz the meter's ticking, you're rushing to set up a session. Paint sctaches

These aren't going to be used in a "real" studio anyway. (I'm a software guy, not a sound engineer!). They'll be, at worst, rotated around every few weeks as the urge hits me. It's a pampered life for a mic, and definitely not a glamorous one.

 

[Pariah Zero]

I ran outta time on the "Eye" microphone (posted earlier) before cold weather hit; it's still WIP, and I hope to finish it.

The blue one below, however, is "done", and it turned out rather nice.

 

[soliloqueen]

What?!? And bring PHYSICS into art?

Seriously, though - I didn't attempt to paint the baskets, surface tension is the PITA that it is at that scale - having a continuous bridge of paint film in all of the holes kind of ruins the point of a basket too. It's so much less trouble on many levels to just leave the factory plating in place (and electrically intact).



These aren't going to be used in a "real" studio anyway. (I'm a software guy, not a sound engineer!). They'll be, at worst, rotated around every few weeks as the urge hits me. It's a pampered life for a mic, and definitely not a glamorous one.

I didn't say that you did, I meant make sure that you sand under where the basket touches. As in, the part of the body covered up by that shiny ring. Otherwise the cage can't ground.