Fake SM57?

A

arthurguinness

New member
Hi Guys

Sorry to be a pain, im new here and to home recording and I am operating on a shoestring budget so I am having to buy preowned equipment. I am trying to find out if this mic is fake. I have watched all the youtube videos I can find and there are contradictions. Some of the tips ive seen online point to this being a fake and other point to it as being real. For example to top spins around without any problems etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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It's always hard to tell from pics but at a glance everything looks legit.
How does it sound and what, exactly, does it weigh?

Weight is often a big giveaway. I've seen fakes with hollow plastic chambers where a big ol' magnet is meant to be.

To Martha!
 
Steenamaroo said:
It's always hard to tell from pics but at a glance everything looks legit.
How does it sound and what, exactly, does it weigh?

Weight is often a big giveaway. I've seen fakes with hollow plastic chambers where a big ol' magnet is meant to be.

To Martha!
Click to expand...

yup, weight is a big give away.
 
It looks fine - how does it sound?
Just curious - why did you buy a used SM57 when they retail new for 100 bucks from any legitimate music store.
 
Based on guides for spotting a fake that i've seen, you should check the XLR connector. On a genuine SM57 pins are marked 1, 2, and 3. If you unscrew the microphone there should be yellow and green colored wires.

I purchased a SM58 from ebay a few years ago and have my doubts if its genuine. Its sounds good enough, but don't have another to compare it to. I've never been able to confirm either way. Next purchase on a shure will be from a reliable music store rather than ebay.
 
I've got one I bought at GC a few months ago, and the other I bought 10 years ago in Spokane, WA at a pawn shop. The 10 year old is about 4 oz less weight, is REALLY picky about angle when recording the 12th on my acoustic and sounds "tinny" and powerless if it's not perfect. The real 57 is a joy to work with and not nearly as finicky. :D

You're real 57 should weigh in right at 10 oz...according to Shure.
 
reel2 said:
I purchased a SM58 from ebay a few years ago and have my doubts if its genuine. Its sounds good enough, but don't have another to compare it to. I've never been able to confirm either way. Next purchase on a shure will be from a reliable music store rather than ebay.
Click to expand...
You'd publically denigrate Ebay as unreliable simply because you have suspicions about your mic {that you say is good enough} that you can't even prove ?
You'll do for Oscar's jury !

















Yeah, I know their system doesn't use one....
it was a joke.
 
I had a similar experience with eBay, what swung it for me, and gave me a full refund, I contacted Shure, who told me that the serial number was for a different mic, and probably fake.
I copied the mail, took pics of the chinese writing on the box, sent it to eBay, money back next day.
Funny thing is I still have the mic. ha ha
 
Si Cassidy said:
I had a similar experience with eBay, what swung it for me, and gave me a full refund, I contacted Shure, who told me that the serial number was for a different mic, and probably fake.
I copied the mail, took pics of the chinese writing on the box, sent it to eBay, money back next day.
Funny thing is I still have the mic. ha ha
Click to expand...

Is it any good? :confused:
 
It looks genuine, but the weight thing is not a guaranteed answer because on a UK forum we got people to weight their genuine 58s from all dates so some from 70s, 80s, up to date, and the weight range varies quite a bit as internal parts were sourced from different places. 57s are solid. To be fair, if the thing sounds ok, does the job and you like what it does, it's not worth the effort. The rubbish copies are so bad they jump out. The good copies sound so close many people don't realise. As they're made by so many factories all the advice to weight, check numbers, colours of internal wires etc don't actually help much.
 
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