This was a real challenge......shock mount replacement

Skitch

Pioneer Member
For a couple of decades, I have been using internal microphones made by MAY (Randall May), with great success, especially in my bass drum to the point of having one factory installed.

Recently, I had thought that the miked sound from my kick drum was sounding strange but dismissed it as improper EQ or some other defect, possibly the EQ on that channel was malfunctioning; essentially I blew it off as maybe I couldn’t trust what I was hearing. It had what can only describe as a bit of a sprongy sound. Sometime after, I looked down through the head during a marathon practice session and noticed that I couldn't see the actual microphone itself (a D112 is kind of hard to miss).

All I saw was the arm extending out but no mic. Upon further inspection, I saw the D112 resting on the pillow. This was what produced the strange, sprongy sound. Apparently, after 14 years of use, the shock mount, most likely due to a decade and a half of vibration, snapped and the sprongy sound of the mic on top of the pillow, at an angle, was a result.

I quickly identified the part which I needed and procured a replacement (shipping is much quicker these days) but still had to remove and replace the broken mount, a tedious process. Every fastener involved was metric and the close proximity of the two nuts to the mic capsule was a real challenge, not to mention the two black plastic washers which facilitate smooth adjustment of the mic itself. Fortunately, these are designed in a manner in which nothing electronic or involving soldering was involved; it was all simply mechanical in nature.

The task took roughly one hour to complete due mostly to the tiny size of nuts, washers and screws involved and, well, you really need three hands. However, using tricks and techniques learned in the auto racing world, once I had things going my way, the process pretty much completed itself. Patience was pretty much the key as all of easily misplaced small parts are just that!

I don't know if anyone else ever has had to do this; I realize that it isn't brain surgery.



Mike

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I'd say that's an impressive track record for the mount remaining intact for several decades. In our disposable culture these days it's rare to see anything hold together that long.

Likewise the biggest amount of time consumption for me on these sort of projects is getting all the precise hardware lined up.

Nice repair!
 
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