[Harp-L] Re: Crystal mic elements

[spschndr@xxxxxxx]

If crystal elements are incredibly delicate flowers, as some have claimed, why have I been using the same MC-151 in my go-to mic for nearly ten years in heat/humidity-ridden Houston, TX?? I have to have taken it out to a venue at least five hundred times by now.

The reason is that I store it in a Tupperware container with desiccant packs when it's at home.? Do the math: that's where the average mic spends the majority of its time, not onstage or in transit.? Keep a crystal cool and dry at home, and it will keep going.? Micro-Mark sells useful desiccants, I think the camera shops do also, or you can just dump in?whatever silica gel packets come out of new electronic packaging.? You could probably even transport the mic in the airtight container if you want to go all the way with that, keep it there between sets.? Don't leave it where it might get too warm, like in the car's trunk parked in sunlight in the summer.? Exercise common sense.

Crystals that die due to being dropped are probably fixable, check the archives for a discussion of the procedure.? Dropping one does not mean certain death; a particular direction & force are required to unseat the crystal.? Don't leave it sitting atop the amp; I set mine atop its cable on the floor against the amp where it's not likely to?be kicked.? I do that with other kinds of mic too.

The corresponding caution with Shure CR/CM elements is not to store your mic in the back of your amp because time spent close to large speaker magnets may demagnetize the mic element.

I think crystal mic fans seldom respond to expressions of crystal mic phobia because keeping their mouths shut means more MC-151s for them, at better prices.

bullfrog, in the case of your biscuit, having a correct gasket for the element/mic combo is crucial to driving the mic diaphragm hard enough to induce distortion at that point; check harpmicgaskets.com for that.? Biscuits did not originally have MC-151s in them.? You might also double-check with Greg Heurmann to confirm that your inline VC is a crystal-specific model, just in case; and a 5Meg grid load resistor on the amp's input is a good idea for use with?harp mics in general, but especially with an MC-151/VC combination.

Stephen Schneider