Adapting an SM-58 type to 1940's style mic

zac850

Well-Known Member
My spring musical in 1940's Radio Hour and for it I want the main mic's of the 'Radio Studio' to look like they belong in the set. I was looking to borrow real looking mic's but that seems not to be happening.

My question to you is if we can adapt with some insulation foam or some rubber or something similar the SM-58 mic and create a shield around the back of it to make it look period. The set designer offered to do this, but I am unsure of how this will affect acoustics of the mic.

Does anyone have any idea of the best way to modify the mic's, and how this will affect the sound we get from them.

Thanks guys
 
When we did On Air, a musical written by our very own James Kirk, last year, we needed a similar looking mic so we used cardboard or styrofoam (i can't remember which exactly) to create the look and in the end we cut a hole through it that we fed a wireless lapel mic through and the reciever was put in a cut-out in the base of the mic. It worked really well, and no one knew that is wasn't real.

We were getting asked, "where did you buy the mic?"
 
I saw that techieman, but at $300 each, that is well above our budget. I am really wondering if putting some solid object behind the SM-58 will affect its pick-up. I know the mic will pick up a small bit of sound from behind it, so I am worried about sound bouncing into the mic and giving a strange echo sound.

I am no sound person, so this could be a silly thing to worry about, but, I don't know. Will doing this affect the sound quality in any way?
 
I think almost anything you do will affect the quality abit, but in this case I dont think it is going to affect it too much. It probably woulnt hurt too much to just grab the mic and stick it infront of something and see what it sounds like. Someone else might have more to say about this, but I really dont think it is going to be too bad... If you were doing a recording session or something where absolute quality was needed I wouldnt suggest you do it, but I think for use on stage the weirdness going on other places will be just as bad.
 
Shure sells a repro of the old Unidyne 55 that's right around $100. But if that's too rich for your blood, check eBay. I was poking around last week looking at that very same mic and hundreds came up. My advice is, if you have 20 or 30 bucks in your budget, pick up a couple that don't work and put condensers in front, or if you wire your actors don't even bother.

Heck, I've got a 55 in my shop that works and I'm not using. If you can cover shipping both ways your welcome to it. Shoot me an e-mail.
 
$200 plus for a 55SH Series II, I think not! Musician's friend lists it for $159+shipping. If you can wait a while,I will have one by mid May!
 
Huh, well if the general response is that it will be fine, I think we'll just make our own adaption out of insulating foam and leave it at that. Our budget for the show is small, and while I have money in the theater budget to use, I would rather not and save it for something we have more use for.

Thanks a lot guys
 

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