Dropped Mic

M

Mr. Moonlight

New member
I accidentally dropped my AKG3000 onto a ceramic tile floor from about 5 ft. Now it rattles from inside the sceen. When speaking into it, one side SEEMS to work ok, the other seems bassier.
Obviously something's broken, but I'm not sure if any of you know

1) if this is a simple fix,

2) who would repair it (send it to AKG?, if so, how long do you think I'll have to be without it?)

3) if I should just make sure I use the side that seems to work

4) if I should just buy a new mike, because this one's no good

I'm really bummed about this. If any of you have any practical advice, please reply.

Thanks!
 
maybe you can save it, I would bring it in your local music store first and ask them if they can do anything to help it. If they can't then send it to AKG.
 
Frank is right, of course, but you might want to carefully take it apart and see what you broke. If you take it apart over a clean towel laid out on the kitchen table, you'll be less likely to lose the pieces. I know how bad you must feel, but turn this disaster into an opportunity to learn something about the mic you've been using. You may find a way to repair it yourself that will make it useable for some projects. Likewise, if it's clearly broken beyond what a little superglue and solder can fix, then yes, send it back to the manufacturer and ask for a repair estimate before you commit to the cost of repair.

I know how much it hurts,

Mark H.
 
Harvey,

At your direction, I just got through that section in the Neumann "book." What am I missing? I'm not kidding -- is his mic toast?

Thanks,

Mark H.
 
Pressure gradient microphones let some of the sound into the back of the capsule to cancel out so that the sound is mainly picked up from the front, but most mics are a little bit "omni" at low frequencies, so it's pretty normal for an AKG C3000 to sound "bassy" from the back side.

What I think happened is that the small 1/4" mic capsule inside there came loose. Yes, there are two capsules in the C3000, a 1" and a 1/4". It shouldn't be too hard to take off the top part of the mic and figure out what came loose and how to put it back.
 
Thanks to all for the input, (especially to Harvey. )

I took it apart and found that the rattling was caused by broken pieces of the plastic ring that holds the wires to the base.

I still have that bassy sound, more like "muddy" from the back side. According to the previous post, this is normal, however, I remember that side being much clearer before I dropped the mic.

I didn't take the top off yet. I wasn't sure if I'd mess up the switch panel. (I don't see how it's attached).
Maybe the mic.'s OK and meant to pick up from only one side?

Forgive my ignorance, but this is the first mic. of this type that I've owned. I'm assuming that the back of the mic. is the one with the switches?

Thanks again.
 
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