home brew mics

guitar junkie

guitar junkie

Guitar User.
So I started a thread in the DIY forum about making my own dynamic mics and didn't really get a whole lot of info out of it... So I thought maybe putting some stuff up here would help get more info ;)

I built this mic:
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The capsule was taken from a broken CB Radio and the body is a discarded doorknob, with some spare cable that was left laying around... I used a little hot glue to make a strain relief for the cable.

I am wanting to get more info on building my own mics for a retro looking live vocal work... Something like a copperphone but with a better sound quality.

Vintage stuff just seems to be rather expensive for the good stuff and the cheap stuff sometimes sounds ok but it can be dicey on tour... So after finding capsules for sale, what else do I need to wire up? My little doorknob harp mic is just wired direct to the cable... But seems like I read about taking the transformer OUT of an SM57 or something in a Tape Op article...

Should I be looking at how to wire in a transformer on a built? Transformerless designs seems to be around though.... I am still sorting all this out here...

HELP!
 
No pictures, but I recorded a couple of songs with the earcup of a broken pair of headphones once. Why? It sounded better than the Nady Starpower mic I bought for the purpose.
 
Whether or not you need a transformer mainly depends on the capsule's output impedance. Some are very low impedance and low output; you want a step-up transformer to get the level up a bit. Some are high impedance and high output; you need to drop the impedance to something manageable.
 
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