[Harp-L] Astatic 200s microphone

[PINTO DIGITAL <pintodigital@xxxxxxx>]

Just got my ASTATIC 200s microphone from David Wren of www.harpmicshop.com
Here's my review. I was blown away when I opened the box. The harp
looked good on internet photos but the real thing looked so much better. 
Usually its the other way around, advertisers make anything from models to
harmburgers look amazing but when you see the product up close it's
often scary. This harp mic has a strong shure cm element and theres no doubt
looking at it inside and out that a professional did the work that has done
a truck load of these before. 
I was an ASTATIC 200s virgin before this having played only shure bullets  
and mostly 545 pistol and straight mics for the 38 years I've been doing this.
There's a lot of things I love about the Astatic 200s. The grille is one of the coolest looking
microphone grills in history. It screams the 1940s look. 
 It's a perfect sized bullet for people like me that don't have basketball players hands 
and the place where David put the volume control is where the stand was chopped. 
Perfect aestetically and the control is out of the way so you won't accidently alter the volume.
This mic has a great percussive honk through my modified bassman ri with plenty
of volume before feedback. It breaks up nice even at fairly low levels but its that full mississippi saxophone tone
not the mosquito buzzing around the room crap sound you get from a bad element or
some of those new repro mics you get from commerical stores. *never bought one but
I've tried them all.  For about $50 more than a store bought piece of junk you can have the real thing.
Lastly and also very important, the mic price. For $150. including the shipping to Canada this mic is a great value. 
Even the shipping was faster than I expected.
 
Anyway, I'm not affiliated with David Wren. I met him online after I learned that Tom Ellis (mic builder for Kim Wilson
and Charlie Musslewhite) who did some work for me before, had retired from mic building. 
I took a chance on David Wren and I just want to say that everything about this man from answering
all my questions, craftsmansip, shipping, etc was perfect. He's building classy mics at honest prices and it
would be cool for you to go to his site and support this dude. 
 
  
Joe Pinto
Little Joe & the Werewolves