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OLD RCA MIC - Help me on the voice ribbon please

C

ChiefEngineer

Found an old RCA Mic. Someone gave this to me years ago. looks cool. Silver top, black bakelite case on bottom with RCA logo circa 1940 on it.

I took it apart as it didn't work. Replaced old cracking mic cable with current cable. Hooked it up. no output. Found a voice pickup ribbon that was broken. What is this made of? replaced it with something that looked similar...aluminum foil.

Mic has 3 impedance outputs. 15000 Ohms, 250 ohms, 100 ohms. I have tried all three.

Anything I do I get a 1940's sound. Very tin can. P's pop regularly.

1) is this the nature of the mic?

2) Anything I can do to make it sound better?

I always was told these were great sounding mics but it sounds horrible compared to the Sennheiser, SM7, RE20 that I have compared it to. If I make an old time radio promo I have the answer for how to get the audio to sound realistic.

Marty
 
Try to find a NOS ribbon. Past that, I've seen aluminum foil from a cigarette pack liner - carefully peeled off from the paper backing - used. Poke around, there are several folks who make a hobby out of rehabbing old mics. Ask Bill Sacks, he'd likely know who can help you out. Your description sounds as though the material you used isn't as flexible as necessary, ro it's atretched too tight. Find a magician, ribbons are magic.
 
Thanks,\
looks like Mic restoration might be in my future 006_4a type RCA mic.

Marty
 
I did discover I have a 74. That was good to know. I didn't realize, or, forgot, darin was rebuilding rca mics. Thanks for the info.
 
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