The Tele – Mic

|December 1, 2008 | Gear

Speaking of phones, a couple of months ago I was messing around in an abandoned factory and found this old ( I’m guessing 1940s or 50s ) intercom handset. Earlier, inspired by the cool microphones Placid Audio makes out of telephone parts, I got some broken mics from the New Orleans Music Exchange and a couple of junk telephones from a thrift store and I built two usable tele-mic hybrids. When I got this thing, though, I realized that it IS a microphone — it’s got a chunky little transformer built into it .. and it was made by Electro-Voice, an old-time manufacturer of mics like the RE20, which you still see in almost every radio station and recording studio. All I had to do was clip the female end off of a mic cable and solder the wires to the wires of corresponding color inside the phone. Presto! It sounds like ……. a telephone, but when used in conjunction with other mics it produces a distinctive tinny, warbly sound that can be really atmospheric ( I hate using words like ” vibey “, but that’s exactly what it does ) . The first time I tried recording with it was as one of the piano mics for Rock City Morgue’s ” The Cat’s Meow ” EP ( you can get it on itunes, or vinyl 10″ record direct from the band ). It’s also on Rik Slave & The Phantoms‘ forthcoming album ( on tack piano ) and on some vocals on Odoms‘ album. Both should be out in a few months.