Joe_L
2770 posts
Aug 29, 2017
4:42 PM
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Not only does RJ have great acoustic tone, he has rock solid microphone handing technique. His playing sounds "special" through any piece of equipment. It sounds special, because it is special. He has worked for decades and thousands of gigs on it.
The King of a Mighty Good Time can be pretty picky when it comes to equipment. He has his favorite pieces of equipment, but he frequently changes stuff up. I don't think the "difference" that you are hearing is the equipment. I think it is more a function of the man presenting the Knowledge You Can't Get In College and that He Came To Play.
It would be easy to go on and on about this subject. The stick vs bullet debate and the old vs new debate will always rage on. Play what you like. Try different stuff and form your own opinion because there is no universally loved piece of equipment. I know an internationally touring artist who is a fantastic harp player and singer. He told me that he hears no difference in the new 545's vs the old 545's. He uses the new ones because he hates the pistol grip.
Clearly, some equipment is better than others. Some of the old stuff is better, but a lot of the new stuff is going to sound better than a vintage JT30 that rattles like a baby toy when you shake it. It really boils down to what you are comfortable with using and most importantly being able to use it.
My goal is to sound good through any piece of equipment handed to me.
Last Edited by Joe_L on Aug 29, 2017 4:43 PM
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1847
4408 posts
Aug 29, 2017
5:32 PM
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"Clearly, some equipment is better than others".....
i agree with that. that is what i am hearing.
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SuperBee
4915 posts
Aug 29, 2017
8:36 PM
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yeah i dunno if its really valid to generalise about this stuff. i'm not really a collector of gear or obsessed about trying everything. i'm interested in gear but only so far. i have more mics than i ever intended to, but its a very modest collection.
i use a sm58 for vocals. i don't mind playing a harp through it either.
i had a 57 for a while. i never loved it. i wasn't committed to the idea of it and i found it rather unloveable.
i have a 585 but its not really worth comparing to anything; loZ and its been modified to take a standard unbalanced cable which rendered it pretty much useless for everything. might make a good missile.
ive used plenty of stick mics on stage. nothing that made me think wow i need to get one of those. there was a shure beta-series mic, i dont recall if 57 or 58 but one of those. that was pretty cool from the handling angle. i had a real good sound man that night.
the rest of my mics are 7 various fat shell things, a 520sl, a brown shure, ev605 and 630, 3 JT30 style shells. there's a MC151, the EV630 is the EV element, the 605 is early 70s CM, there's a 1950 CR, a 54 CR, a 59 CM and a 65 CM. each of those mics is tonally different, they each have a unique character. none of them are prone to feedback, unless i turn the amp up high enough to feedback (possibly 1847's most profound observation)
i just play them because that's what i have. first time i plugged that 605 into my amp and heard the voice of god, i was were i wanted to be with the harp sound. so that was where i focussed attention.
i think they generally sound better than my 58 or 585 or my 57 when i had it, and i find them more comfortable. not the EV shells, they aren't so good to hold. i have a powder-coated JT-style shell; that isnt so good to hold either. the hammertone JTs are good, and the brown shure was best.
i take the point about modern easily replaceable versus old unique. especially crystals. and its probably true, i don't know, that one 57 sounds the same as another 57, which hasn't been the case with any CM or CR mic i've tried. dunno about older stick mics, maybe theres a degree of variability between units?
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tomaxe
98 posts
Aug 30, 2017
6:50 AM
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A question for you mic experts out there:
I bought a new Shure 545 many years ago, the new (probably Mexican made?) model with a switch and the dual impedence ability—I wired it for high Imp per the instructions that came with the mic. I have used it with a cord that has the classic female three prong connector on one end and then a guitar plug (1/4") on the other end—I just plug it into the amp. Sounds good, but not as good as my old pistol grip 545 that has a vintage style cord (like a goofy four prong screw-in thing and then the 1/4" plug at the other end). The vintage 545 pistol is a tad hotter and has better bass response, though I have never done a total in depth side by side. But...am I "doing it wrong" with the new 545? Should I use an impedence converter like one would do with an RE10 or an SM57 even though this new 545 is supposedly wired high impedence? Or is it just that this new one is a less hot mic and...it is what it is?
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barbequebob
3445 posts
Aug 30, 2017
8:32 AM
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The originals were far better made but they also used a connector that hasn't been made in many years and the original 565's, the predecessor to the SM58 used the very same connector at the mic end as well. From my own experience, even with the Green Bullet mics made when they began to make them dual impedance is that once you have something that is dual impedance, something seems to suffer a bit.
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Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
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Kingley
4074 posts
Aug 30, 2017
11:13 AM
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"My goal is to sound good through any piece of equipment handed to me."
Well said. Absolutely agree 100% Joe.
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1847
4412 posts
Aug 30, 2017
1:23 PM
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Perhaps that is where our philosophies diverge. My goal is to sound good without any equipment.
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garry
684 posts
Aug 30, 2017
3:43 PM
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Right, because everyone knows good tone doesn't come from your gear. It comes from how cool your hat is.
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Joe_L
2771 posts
Aug 30, 2017
4:06 PM
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I do sound good without any equipment and I look even better.
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