Bullet mics and CM elements

["G." <gigs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey there,
  I got my bundle of mics from John just the other day, very pleased with my
purchase and think the money is well spent and helped him all in a good
cause. (Thanks again John)

  I found out that cheap LEEM brand vocal mic meshes fit the SM58 really
well, I have LEEM mic so I was able to swap meshes with one with dents and
dings.  Good to know hey?

  The Green Bullet 520D I bought from John had a Mexican dual impedance CM
element complete with balanced XLR cable which took me by surprise.  I
didn't know these things came in dual impedance.

  I also have from previous purchases two other USA made CM elements which
for all intents and purposes ~look~ the same but the one I bought from
Scooter ages ago is just that much more powerful and preferable to my ears,
buggered if I know why the other one is not the same, its not bad at all,
nice tone and I'd be happy with it if I didn't have the choice, but its
definitely lower powered than my other USA CM, CR, Ceramic and Crystal
elements.

  So I'm wondering if this Mexican dual impendance element can be wired hot?
Do I remove the resister to the blue wire and just use the earth and red
wires like in all the other bullets I've got or is there more to it than
that?  More curious than anything.

And I'm proud to say I've successfully installed an on/off switch which
works just fine.  Getting quite good at all this bullet microphone melarkey,
just as the technology becomes almost completely unavailable.  :-/

Next up is I'm planning to strip and repaint one of my Green bullet shells
in Cherry Red with PERL - I'm figuring if I sand it clean its just a matter
of carefully spraying on the Cherry, wait for each coat to set, then the
PERL?   Any tips?

FWIW theres a chap on alt.music.harmonica who's made some interesting wood
mics with crystal elements which sound very very close to a good hot MC151
with the difference that it has more bass end without giving anything else
away.   Its made in china and the size and thickness of a 50c coin!   Might
be worth hunting down if you love the tone of crystal elements.  I prefer
Ceramic myself, maybe the Chinese manufacturer makes those too - I don't
even know the name of the company that makes them.

Best regards,
G.
http://www.angelfire.com/music/harmonica/amplified.html