Vocal Grit for Live Work - Mic or Preamp

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bgavin

New member
I want to find either a mic or preamp that adds "grit" to my live vocals.

My bass player says the SM58 types we use for live are too "clean" for my bar-shouter style.
He wants me to get either a dirty mic, or dirty preamp.

My first thought was the Studio Projects VTB1.

Q: has anybody been down this road and have good advice?
The ideal would be a preamp device I can mount on my keyboard so I can switch Clean and Dirty on demand.
 
The ART Tube MP will make a decent mic sound like crap. Maybe have a way to switch the mic's output to two paths, a clean one and a dirty one through the Tube MP.
 
:D Sound guy from Boulder has the right idea.
And along those lines maybe some type of stomp box will help you along your way. ;)
 
Come to think of it I have worked with some bands live that have two microphones up front and center for the lead vocals one being the 58 for normal then a Shure green bullet harp microphone or similar for gritty vocals.

Kinda like the Foster the peoples -- Pumped up kids song . Sweet to grit sound on the vocals.
 
I saw a note about using one of my SM57 instead.
Funny... I always thought the 57 was the same cartridge but without the ball screen.

Anybody have any thoughts on the Studio Projects VTB1?
 
Believe me you want a harp microphone or similar for gritty vocals Gavin especially for live work.

Read up about the bullet HERE
 
Basicly, check out what blues harmonica players use to get a gritty sound. The mentioned Green Bullet is a harmonica mic. There's a lot of youtube clips on harmonica mics, browse around for a bit.

I guess a sm57 would also be better, it is infact the same mic as the sm58, but the different head allows you to get closer to the diafragm and kind of overload it. Remember Lemmy uses the sm57 exclusively.
 
Thanks!
I will keep a watch for a Green Bullet for my mic locker.
I did pick up a nearly-new VTB-1 off eBay, just in case.
 
Apex makes a harmonica mic that you can acquire for significantly cheaper than the green bullet. The biggest difference between the two is that the apex does not have an onboard volume control. That and its not green. It is a pretty good mic, though. I use it on harp, vocals and sometimes snare.
 
I found a nice site for bullet mics, history and wiring.
Frankly, I'm put off by high-Z on the stock GB.
Looking at the schematic, I see it can be easily rewired to low-Z and an XLR connection.

Typical retail for the GB is $119, which seems a bit much for how little one gets.
The other downside is the GB is an omni, which means it mostly sucks for live vocal (non-harp) use on stage.
 
I had a GB years ago...plus lots of other inexpensive hi-Z Shure mics. Not to dispute anybody, but I don't think of any of them as gritty...lo-fi yes. The grit is basically distortion, right? Seems like it would need to come from the source (chain smoking Marlboros and drinking whiskey) or be created in the signal path (pleasantly over driven signal). Isn't the blues harmonica sound basically a limited frequency response into an over driven guitar amp? Take away the over driven amp, and whattayagot? How about this signal chain: Singer>SM58 > VTB1> lightly distorted guitar amp> SM57>sound board?
 
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