tired mic ribbon?

[hodad]

I've got an old Shure 315 that works, but the ribbon has a bit of an "S" curve to it(from top to bottom). Is this a sign that it's stretched out? Or is it ok for it to be a little curved?

Thanks
Tom

 

[soundguy]

how does it sound? generally when a ribbon is really stretched you can hear it moving around, the high end gets an odd "foily" type of sound to it, hard to describe. I usually know when to replace my ribbons by listening to them on a louder source, far away from a guitar cab or something like that. If you can hear the ribbon moving, its time to replace it.

dave