badging a SM57

antichef

antichef

pornk rock
I have a bunch of SM57s, and and other people do, too, and when I work with them, I don't really know or care whether one or more of my 57s accidentally switches places with theirs - I don't think so, but I probably wouldn't know if it happened.

But... I have one 57 that I put an AMI transformer into. Externally, it looks just like the others. I put a piece of embossed tape on it, but it's sort of starting to come off.

How would you go about putting some sort of badge on a microphone like this in a fairly permanent way? I have no idea where I would get a badge, either. I don't really care what it looks like (just not too ghetto if I can avoid it) - it's just for identification - any thoughts on this? Any other approach to the problem that wouldn't look like complete hell if attempted by someone with no visual artistic skill?
 
antichef said:
But... I have one 57 that I put an AMI transformer into. Externally, it looks just like the others. I put a piece of embossed tape on it, but it's sort of starting to come off.
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I just put a band of insulation tape around the mic body.
Same with the clips and shockmounts.
 
A dremel is a great idea, but can be pretty destructive in the wrong hands.

A simple jewelry engraver might be a similar but less intense solution. You know, like they used to use on dog ID tags? You "write" with it while it stamps tiny little dots into the metal. You can find them at Hobby Lobby and places like that. I have one I use to carve my initials into my tools. If you wanna meet up or something, I'll let you use it.

Or hell, just get a file or something and file your name into it.
 
wow you just made me remember that I "checkered" the grip on a gun that I have using this special file and kit - I'm actually fairly handy with non-motorized stuff. I bet I could do the same thing to a portion of the SM57 - it would be distinctive looking and less likely to slip out of your hand when you hit stuff with it.
 
NEVER swap 57s. They're the most counterfeited mics going, and just doing a mic box quantity guarantees you end up with a forgery. Happened to me with a 58 last week. We have an emergency 58 on a long cable in the theatre wings, for when there's a panic. The cable was a mess, so I pulled it out of the holder, and knew in an instant some bugger had swapped their copy for my genuine. Everyone seems to suffer from these tea leaves nowadays. Engrave your mics and you destroy the resale. The resale of a 57 is not enough to make it an issue.
 
jimmys69 said:
Use a Dremmel to make an identifiable mark on it. Hell, anything just so you can identify it.
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thats my first guess....sounds like a working mans setup so a scribed mark wont reduce any museum collectors price book value on a 57.
 
CoolCat said:
thats my first guess....sounds like a working mans setup so a scribed mark wont reduce any museum collectors price book value on a 57.
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I had my bands rehearsal space ripped off a while back. The way we found it was because one of my friends (roadies) took a Sharpie and wrote my name (Jim 2) on the bottom of a cymbal. It turned up at a local pawn shop.

We got most of the gear back BTW.

It was over $20,000 in gear. Dood who stole it is long since been out of jail and stopped paying his restitution payments required by probation. Sure his life is awesome still...
 
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I wonder how the chick at Things Remembered would react if you came in with a bag full of SM57s for engraving. :D
 
Steenamaroo said:
Never heard the follow up on that. Glad you got most of the gear back mate. :)
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Still missing a few pieces (Martin D-50 and 68 or so Les Paul) but when you get that much stolen and get most back, it is just amazing.

The details are that the girlfriend of the guy who helped the dood who had the balls to pull up an empty truck and load out all of our gear, was the one who had the pawn ticket for the stolen cymbals we found on internet. After finding the cymbals online, we then saw the name written on my cymbal at a local pawn shop. The police and pawn shop got that information and the dood revealed the truth and gave us the storage space where the stolen gear was and gave the name of the guy behind it.

It was a horrible time as we also were recording in the rehearsal space at the time and thought that was lost. We got that all back. Band broke up but that was going to happen anyway.
 
Jim's idea with the sharpie is a good one. I would color the whole rim ( I would call it the bottom - opposite from the head ie. capsule) where the XLR cable inserts into the body of the microphone ... black.
 
I remember you posting about that mod many years ago. I always wanted to try it.

Look it's easy and you don't have to mark your mic in any way (though the gun checkering thing sounds really cool)... just tell them you have an "intimate relation" with the mic. They won't touch it. :D

For real, I just use colored electrician's tape.
 
I have an electronic GPS tracking system connected to my own satellite with 24/7 monitoring abilities...just incase.
 
Well, I managed the ugly but distinctive file mark. I knew the mic body metal would be softer than a 1911 but I greatly underestimated the difference - slllopppy - really should have put everything in a vice or something like that. Anyway I gave up - doing this much damage only took a minute


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