Broken SM57???

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jclark5093

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One day, at sound check, my SM57 just didn't light up. No snap crackle or pop, no buzz no nothing. Just nothing. The engineer asked if it was turned on. He saw it was a 57. But enough about him, what's the deal with my mic?

I talked to Shure and they said $55 gets me a new one off the line, no retail pkging 1 year service warranty. So I'm trying to fix it myself because it's either fix it or have no mic (for a while).

Not dropped, not abused, not left out in the rain. I opened it up (took a minute to figure out how) and found two tiny tiny bare coppers coming from the head down to the leads on the sides that run to the yellow and green wires. They were taped over with yellow, but the exposed part between the tape and the bracket they were *wrapped around* are severed. I'm sure these things all have names, but I don't know what they are.

Not sure if it's visible, but the wire crosses over from the bottom to the top (in the landscape view)

D6736905_7357872_664611


Bottom line - this is a simple mechanical failure, but the wires are so small I don't know how to repair it - if I use a larger gauge wiring the impedance will be affected, right? This shouldn't be so hard... (and shouldn't have happened in the first place!!!)

Help! Thanks!!
 
moresound said:
Game over get a new one.:(
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Indeed, I fix mics all the time. Capsule dead = end of story. (enter: Marche Funebre - Chopin)

$55 for a new one is a pretty nice deal, used ones sell in that price range.
 
Just a quick SM57 related question that I'd like to ask without starting a new thread, if I may be so bold. I have a pair of SM57s, and one has developed a pretty loud hum/buzz. Is this a common problem that's easily rectified? I'm fairly certain I was given a decent 12 month warranty from the vendor I bought from (American Musical Supply), and it's ~2 months old, at max. Is it worth attempting to repair? I do have a decent soldering iron, and am competent with it. Upon opening the capsule like the above picture, I can discern no physical problems with the wiring. I've been fairly nice to the mics so far, and these guys are supposed to have a pretty good rep for durability. It did work properly about a week ago. I swapped cables and all that during troubleshooting, and have definitely traced the problem to the mic itself. Thanks for any help you guys can render!

EDIT: Just check my account at AMS, did not get a 12 month warranty unfortunately. Looks like I'm just out of the return period as well, damn it all. Might have to just shell out the ~$60 for the exchange action from Shure.
 
Turtleface said:
Just a quick SM57 related question that I'd like to ask without starting a new thread, if I may be so bold. I have a pair of SM57s, and one has developed a pretty loud hum/buzz. Is this a common problem that's easily rectified? I'm fairly certain I was given a decent 12 month warranty from the vendor I bought from (American Musical Supply), and it's ~2 months old, at max. Is it worth attempting to repair? I do have a decent soldering iron, and am competent with it. Upon opening the capsule like the above picture, I can discern no physical problems with the wiring. I've been fairly nice to the mics so far, and these guys are supposed to have a pretty good rep for durability. It did work properly about a week ago. I swapped cables and all that during troubleshooting, and have definitely traced the problem to the mic itself. Thanks for any help you guys can render!

EDIT: Just check my account at AMS, did not get a 12 month warranty unfortunately. Looks like I'm just out of the return period as well, damn it all. Might have to just shell out the ~$60 for the exchange action from Shure.
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Your looking in the wrong end of the mic :p

Good signal + hum is, in most cases, a ground problem.

At the bottom of the mic there's a screw, you have to screw that out (or in, I'm not sure off the top off my head), until you can (gently) pull out the plastic piece, with the three contact points. The black wire on pin 1 is probably loose.
 
73mgb said:
You must have been nailing to much with that 57!
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:laughings:exactly what I was thinking


anyway, sucks but $55 is pretty sweet for a NEW 57! and you can use the money you saved to invest in a hammer
 
I have soldered those tiny wires successfully before however, you have to be pretty good with an iron to do it and you have to carefully sand off the laquer insulation first.
Truthfully, if you were good enough soldering to do it you probably would have already known how and would have fixed it without coming anywhere to ask about it.
Pretty delicate work there so i think you're out of luck.
 
It'll be a little more than $55 with shipping and any applicable state tax but the quality repair and service is worth it and still a bargain. Recently has a dead wireless system serviced and they even threw in a new wall-wart (which was not the problem).

BTW, I've had two SM57s die with the same symptoms---usually attributable to a head-on hit to the capsule end of the mic that compresses the screen/ring in towards the body. Otherwise, about as sturdy a mic as you can expect. The Shure repair is definitely the way to go.

Paj
8^)
 
it's do-able. I used to build those micro hearing devices under a microscope. With a steady hand and a decent magnifying glass, the process should be painless. Downside? the capsule ends up dead but you at least gave it a go.
 
drumslinger said:
it's do-able. I used to build those micro hearing devices under a microscope. With a steady hand and a decent magnifying glass, the process should be painless. Downside? the capsule ends up dead but you at least gave it a go.
Click to expand...

I've fixed mics with broken leads. Make sure you sand off the lacquer as previously mentioned and apply solder flux/paste to the leads
before soldering. The less time the iron is applied to the leads the better.
 
From the picture of the metal where wires are taped, it looks rather corroded as though the mike has been subject to high humidity, possibly salty air, for quite a while. This may cause a number of problems. Beside wire connections, the corrosion could have built up on the magnetic poles that the voice coil moves in, and with the close tolerance, is preventing the voice coil from moving freely. You could check this by hooking up to amp and taping capsule with a plastic screwdriver handle. If you get some sound that may be the problem. However, from the corrosion I see in picture, best thing is to send it in for a new one. I used to work for American Microphone Co. one of my jobs was repairing mic's & those wires are very delicate. We used a solvent to remove the enamel insulation on voice coil wires rather than try to sand it off.

Many years ago Electro-Voice had a problem with dynamic mics. Turns out they had a batch of solder flux that was corrosive and, over time, the solder connection to voice coil wires would open up when the flux ate through the fine wire.
 
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BTW: Using different wire size will not change the impedance. At least not more than a milli ohm or two if any.
 
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