V67g mods anyone?

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usernamebob

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hey, anyone know of any fairly easy mods to do on the v67g?... I've had abit of a search around, but I didn't find any
 
usernamebob said:
hey, anyone know of any fairly easy mods to do on the v67g?... I've had abit of a search around, but I didn't find any
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Most mic upgrades involve changing the capacitors in the signal path or transformer but these are already a fairly decent standard in the V67
 
usernamebob said:
hey, anyone know of any fairly easy mods to do on the v67g?... I've had abit of a search around, but I didn't find any
Click to expand...

You should be searching for mods for the MXL 2001. They look different, but the guts are the same. I've done the capacitor mods and the Royer mod to the 67. I don't have the info right now, but I'm in a rush so when I have some time I can post. I'm in the process of making a 2001 into a Sony C-37ish clone and I'm almost done. I'll post the results as well.
 
OK. For this you will need:

1) 1000pF polystyrene capacitor
1) .22nF Metal Film, metalized Polyester, or good film capacitor.

Do NOT use ceramic or tantalium caps!!

If you open the mic, you'll see it has 2 circuit boards, back to back. Unscrew the board that does NOT have the leads from the capsule soldered to it. Carefully move it to the side trying not to pull two hard on the wires that connect it to the other board. On the back of the other board, you will see a spall capacitor mounted to the stand-offs for the capsule. Replace this one with the 1000pF polystyrene.

Replace cap marked C3 with the .22nF cap.

You're done. The improvement will be small, but good. If you want a more drastic mod, you could do the Scott Dorsey mod, found on Google. Or you could do the Royer mod, found at Mojave Audio's website. The Dorsey mod will cost around $20-30. The Royer mod is around $300 unless you build/buy all the parts youself like I did. Then it's more like $150. The above mod will cost a couple a bucks and the parts can be found at mouser.com
 
While you are going to all that trouble, I'd go ahead and put something bigger than a .22 in there if it were me. Might give you a little more low end.

Re-laminating the transformer is your best bet, though. That transformer is poor quality! The laminates are probably made from scrape Chinese car bumpers, lol!
 
Flatpicker said:
Re-laminating the transformer is your best bet, though. That transformer is poor quality! The laminates are probably made from scrape Chinese car bumpers, lol!
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I know the 2001 had a crappy transformer but I thought Brent spec'd a reasonably decent transformer for the V67?
 
Yeah, a .47 would add a bit more low. I never went that far 'cause I gutted it later for the Royer. Something besides the car bumper trafo would help.:)

Which trafo did Brent spec for this? That would be interesting to know.
 
Somewhere long, long ago, in a far away land, I vaguely recall Brent saying something about the transformer being different on the 67, or something to that affect... Don't remember the context of the discussion. He posted that somewhere - maybe here, don't remember.

More recently after hearing several folks say that the transformers looked alike in both mics, I speculated that he might have used better transformer laminates for that mic, but I was just guessing - don't know for sure.

It may very well be that the difference in sound is only in the different grille designs which would cause a very noticeable difference in sound.
 
They sound wonderful. I loaned 2 to Simon Phillips, who's a great drummer (Jeff Beck, The Who, Toto etc.) and is very picky about his sound. he is also a really good producer. He called me the next day and said they were fantastic. He wanted me to make him a couple. Then, of course he got ahold of some Rode tubes that he said sounded a little fuller. I bet if I'd put in better capsules they'd beat the Rode's.

Oh well, at least I have 3 really nice mics that I made myself. can't wait to fire up this attempt at a Sony. Hope it doesn't flame!
 
how do you go about getting new laminations for the tansformers... will they be avaliable through most electrical shops?.. and how much difference does it make?... would it be better to just replace the whole things? or is that getting fairly pricey/difficult... I read an article on doing the relamination.. and it sounded quite easy

Also seems as my 67's are in the mail and I can't check yet.. do they use hf lift disks like the oktavas... and if so would it be a good idea to remove those?
 
usernamebob said:
how do you go about getting new laminations for the tansformers... will they be avaliable through most electrical shops?.. and how much difference does it make?... would it be better to just replace the whole things? or is that getting fairly pricey/difficult... I read an article on doing the relamination.. and it sounded quite easy

Also seems as my 67's are in the mail and I can't check yet.. do they use hf lift disks like the oktavas... and if so would it be a good idea to remove those?
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The laminations you need are an odd size and good quality laminations are usually only available in large quantities, in fact heres a quote:

Flatpicker said:
The transformer laminations are sold by weight and are $100 min order.
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Some people have been successful in ordering small quantities as 'samples. It would probably be as easy to order a transformer from cinemag - just tell them what its for and they will recommend one.

http://www.cinemag.biz/
 
It's alot easier to just replace one and cheaper. Talk to Tom at Cinemag. He's very knowledgable and friendly.
 
do you need crazy soldering skills... or are the points where the transformers connect fairly easy?..

Also if theres any Aussies on here do they know anywhere that you could sorce good transformers from in Aus?
 
usernamebob said:
do you need crazy soldering skills... or are the points where the transformers connect fairly easy?..

Also if theres any Aussies on here do they know anywhere that you could sorce good transformers from in Aus?
Click to expand...

Its a fairly simple soldering job, I wouldn't hesitate in ordering from cinemag, you can pay with paypal and the postage is really quite cheap. Because you are eliminating the middle man the prices are very good, I doubt you could find better in australia.

I havn't had a chance to use my transformers yet, as I have a big project thats taking all my time. But the specs, built quality and service seem excellent.
 
You can do what Phil said and see how far that gets you. Next, re-laminate the transformer. The transformer is a 1:2 ratio and I don't know if anyone makes a replacement. Neumann goes straight from the FET into a 1:7 (or maybe higher?) ratio transformer and that's probably what you will find at Cinemag and else where. Anyway, you'd have to redesign the circuit to use one of those.

Personally, I’d just re-laminate it. CJ at The Lab re-laminated one and posted before and after specs on it. There was a big improvement. It’s not hard to do and you can order plenty of sample laminates, so it’s free! Here’s a thread where Andybot re-lamm'd his Apex mic (same circuit). All you need to know is here.
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=129008&highlight=apex

Other than this, you can only toss the entire circuit and try something else. That’s about it.
 
Oh I dunno about tossing the entire thing out Tim. There's a lot you can do with that circuit besides changing capacitors and laminations.

Brent Casey
 
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