Hi all,


can anyone help me identify this mic - apparently a british made ribbon??? Up for sale locally (cheapish) so I decided to pick it up on a whim - would be great to know what to expect - esp. if i've just dropped cash on a dud.




Posted this on a couple of forums but no info - as this is the home of funky and uncommon gear I thought someone might be able to hlep me out.

Cheers

Grundig is a German consumer electronics brand. (A bit more to it, but that works for the time period one would assume this mic is from.) They have been known to rebadge others' mics, like the Sennheiser MD-21 omni dynamic. This mic may very well be British manufactured--it looks a hell of a lot like this: http://www.proaudioheaven.com/bbc Now mind you, what this vendor is pushing looks to include a replacement ribbon and transformer upgrade. The good news is that the magnet yoke must be good if it is reasonably called a 44 clone with mods--if the magnet structure sucks, then there isn't much of a turd to gild. See how it goes stock and consider upgrades from there.

Good luck!

Bear

saw the 'bbc' mics for sale - the mic is apparently british made so took a punt on it for $125. Fingers crossed it might be a winner stock - not expecting an RCA like exerience but just hoping it's not going to turn out to be a turd.

A good place to get heavy into research on some of this old gear is usenet. Google Groups has an archive of usenet groups going back to 1981.

Very, very true. It's also good if you know the personalities there--some of the posters have mountains of experience and knowledge, so their word carries weight.

Bear

Thanks for the info - took a look at the google groups but didn't get anywhere - is there a url you could refer me to or any tips on searching?

I didn't turn up much of any help there on Lustraphone, but here's my results page: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.audio.p...arch+this+group

Usually some sorting towards useful info, like this search I just did idly to get to information on rewiring the transformer strapping on older Neumann mics that had been imported by Gotham Audio: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.audio.p...arch+this+group As you might see, maybe 1/4 of those threads are relevant, but some knowledgeable people weigh in on it. A search on Grundig and ribbon is likely to get a quite wide set of results, as they have sold different ribbon mics in their history. Likewise to BBC and ribbon, which will likely turn up a lot of STC and Coles info. If you care to dig through all that, go nuts.

Bear

In my ribbon mic endeavors, I haven't happened across a Grundig in the states, but it my talks with those across the pond, they are fairly common in the UK, and are typically known for having an extremely low output, like low even for a ribbon mic. So don't be surprised if you have to rip the knob off.

All microphones have a use. It might be as a hammer, but.....

Regards

ju

Thanks for the info - from doing a bit more reading it seems that Grundig had a line in re-branding mic's from other manufacturers. There's at least one model that appears to be a re-branded Beyer Ribbon - unfortunately this is not it...

If this is the same as the BBC mics mentioned above I'm guessing that they both came from the same UK manufacturer and were rebadged by the BBC and Grundig. Fingers crossed this means the mic may be ok stock - but for $125 aussie dollars I figure it's worth the punt.

Not too fussed about output - my AM16 pre's have a whole lotta gain and there's a couple of JLM Baby Animals lying around that are generally a good pairing for ribbons. More concerned about the sound. Am travelling for a couple of months so won't get to test it out till March but will report back.

Just found this thread on the modded mics: http://prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewtopic.php...9917fabbd87da64
Some mixed opinion and technical info for you in there.

Bear

Thanks for that - really useful. Looks like it's probably not worth a whole lot more than I paid for it - wonder how much it'd go for if I put it on eBay right away...

Figure it's probably worthy as a cheap character mic but I'm holding out hope I might be surprised. Did a project last year where I used an old italian ribbon mic that someone had literally found at the rubbish dump. It needed heaps of gain and was a bit fussy with placement (saggy ribbon I think) but also won out on vocal and drum o/h duties. I was after a particular sound though...

Will let you know when I hear it.

oh yeah - more info on this mic under lustraphone. Grundig may have re-badged a lustraphone model or they both re-badged mics from the same supplier. Possibly used by BBC for location interviews (not studio applications) but this boils down to a brief reference in a sound-on-sound q&a.

here is a valuable web site for getting info on mics.
mics
i did not see the one being discussed but i did not look much: (~

believe it or not that was the first place i checked - great mic resource. Should have another look though as I was searching for 'grundig' rather than 'lustraphone'...