Blues Blaster Mic - Capacitor

[elliott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> >Is there just a capacitor wired across the element on BluesBlaster mics
> 
>  My understanding is that this cap is there to make sure there always is 
> some sort of load going into your amp. It's supposed to be bad for your 
> tube amp to not have any sort of input load, but I could be wrong about 
> this...

The cap is there as a filter.  A cap appears as an open circuit to low
frequency signals and a closed (or short) circuit to high frequencies.
Depending on how it is wired, it is sending the high frequencies somewhere.
I haven't seen a stock Blues Blaster, but I believe it is wired across the
volume pot to so you don't lose any high end with the volume pot.  (That is
a common complaint I've heard from harp players, not wanting a volume knob
installed in their mic... that they will "lose" the high end.)  Actually,
Fender Telecasters use the same idea on the volume knob... it is  called
a "treble pass" circuit.  On most guitars, when you turn the guitar down,
it loses high frequencies faster than the lows... so it gets muddy sounding.
On a Tele, you almost get a briter sound as you turn down because the
high frequency has a path across the volume pot... until the volume is 
turned all the way down... then ground "wins".  :-)

Hope this helps, (comments/questions welcome)
Elliott New

P.S. - I like these microphone discussions... I've been trying to find out
exactly what value cap Astatic uses; so I can try it out on my old JT-30.
By the way, the other wiring alternative that I mentioned above, would be
to offer the cap as a path to ground for high frequencies... in effect
that would lose the high end.  I doubt that's what they are doing....
Not a whole lot of complex filtering you can do with one capacitor...
either pass treble or lose treble.  BTW, you can't boost frequencies w/o
an active circuit.