"Green Bullet" harp mic wiring question.

So, if you had a Shure R198 microphone cartridge that looked like this...

http://www.sweetwater.com/images/closeup/xl/1600-R198_detail1.jpg

http://www.djsproaudioandlighting.com/prodimages/shure/R198_Med.jpg

And you bought a steel kitchen sifter that looked like this...

http://www.stephensons.com/72301-1073-large/stainless-steel-fine-mesh-sifter-6oz--170ml-br.jpg

And you drilled a hole in the bottom of the sifter and installed a 1/4" jack.

HOW would you wire it all up?

I'm not used to seeing four wires coming off of one component.

here is Shure's wiring drawing. I don't want to have a volume knob on mine though.

http://shure.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/38947/0/filename/520dx-1.gif

My guess is:

orange goes to the jack-tip.

white goes to the jack-ground.

grey goes to the sifter shell? or the jack-ground (same thing?)

and brown.... where does that go, what is it?

Maybe I can't use a standard 1/4" cable and I need one that is sheilded and just hard wire it in the sifter shell?

Thanks for any help.

I don't know JBennett but I'd be interested to know.
You don't have the rest of the mic or this is a custom project?
I know most harp mic's use the screw on connection at the base.
Several people pose questions of this type in the harp section on the BRB forum.
http://bigroadblues.com/forum/
Sometimes Greg from blowsmeaway.com answers them but may take some time. He seems willing to do so on his own and not many people know more about mic's than him, may be worth an email.
http://www.blowsmeaway.com/
Love to have me one of his mic's

I've just always wanted to try have one of these to mess around with. They cost $120 dollars new and at least 75 bucks used. Vintage models are more. The r198 is the exact element used in the reissue and it's only 30 dollars, the sifter only 5 bucks, and I've got a bunch of jacks, wires, etc. laying around, so it seemed like a fun, quick project for a budget version of the bullet. I also found a rubber plumbing pipe insulator that will make for a perfect gasket around the element inside the sifter shell, so I think I've got what I need. BUT, I'm still not clear on the wiring.

Thanks for the links. I'll check out those forums and see if I can find some help.

I was inspired by the look of these mics by placid audio:

http://www.placidaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/PlacidAudio-copperphone-pegboard3.jpg

http://www.placidaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/PlacidAudio-harmonica-mini-pegboard1.jpg

http://www.placidaudio.com/wp-content/themes/wptheme/i/carbonphone.jpg

I plan on building a pivot base or a shockmount once it's working.

Here is my sifter, drilled with a 1/4" jack. If that won't work I can always just use that hole to hard-wire a specific cable. I'm still waiting on delivery of the bullet element.

http://i.imgur.com/sp8dU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xOXKd.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FXotL.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/e11sg.jpg

Thats Cool JB, I like it!
Please post a pic when done.:cool:

Maybe the diagram at the bottom of this page will help. http://www.greenbulletmics.com/

Mike. Thanks. I had looked at that site, but hadn't seen that diagram. That does clear things up a bit.

http://www.greenbulletmics.com/images/520dwiring100224a.jpg

wouldn't it be better to se an xlr connector? they lock in for a firm connection.

I'll just keep the mic on a stand. I'm not going to use it for harmonica. Just for lo-fi vocals/guitars, so I don't think I need an XLR connection.

Another question. In those wiring charts from greenbulletmics.com.... the wires drawn that end in an X... are those going to ground? That's not a ground symbol, but I don't know what it is if it's not going to ground.

I picked up some two-conductor, shielded cable last night. I'll wire up the element according to shure's hi-z chart. Should have it up and running by this eve if all goes well.

Did you figure out what the deal with the wires marked, "X" is? I'd guess they're unused and you just tape the ends or don't install them???

Nope. Not sure about those yet. It's surprisingly hard to find info on mic wiring. Especially these hi-z mics.

I figured I'd just use some jumpers and try a few options out to see what gets a signal.
I'll report back.

That's going to be very cool. I would like to try doing some vocals through a green bullet.

I've been looking at bullets to run through my champ. I've been doing harp through the PA through a regular mic. I recently heard a friend play his harp through the newer bullet with a volume running though his champ and was impressed with the sound. From what I've read the new bullets design is not as good as the old for harp??? my friend's sounded OK to me. Just trying to decided before I spring for one. Platefire

I think the "they don't make 'em like they used to" is probably the sort of thing someone who has years of harp mic experience will tell you, but just listen to your ears. Shure has been making the green bullet in mexico for many years now and you liked what you heard from your pals reissue.

If you love the inexpensive reissue, then you can go down the rabbit hole and start hunting for the holy grail. I think it's a bad way to start your search though. Just go with your ears. Plus, you can always buy one from a store that will let you try it for 30 days to see if you really like it.

Again, I'm not using mine for harp, but I'll record some sound samples when it's all done. (still waiting on fedex).

Use and XLR connector. Wire one side of the transformer to Pin 2, the other side to Pin 3, tape off the center tap. Wire pin 1 to the case. Do it now, thank me later. If it ends up out of phase with your other mics and you care about that, swap the wires to pins 2 & 3 and leave 1 alone.

This is your best set of trade-offs for wiring this mic and getting good stage use out of it.

http://www.dannychesnut.com/Electronics/XLR/XLR-WiringDiagram.htm

Just lurkinng...kind of. Jbennett, do you think that the weight/density of that sifter---or the lack thereof actually...will have much effect on the sonics? I have never seen a mic built out of metal that light. I would think that there may be some resonance factor that you might not like. PErhaps some sound deadening material such as used in auto doors applied to the inside of that sifter would be of interest/help if there are some resonannce issues once you get it going???

Thanks for the replies. I picked up a ProFlex flixible pipe coupling at home depot.

It looks like this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31RbjjEDfcL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

The rubber gasket slides out of the metal sleeve.
It's EXACTLY the size of my sifter on outer diameter, and EXACTLY the right size with some squeezing to hold the mic-element. That was some luck! (I needed to bevel the inner edge of the gasket with an exacto knife. In one of the photos, you can see a black curved sliver. That's how little I had to remove to allow me to push the element into the ring.

http://i.imgur.com/wdBHx.jpg

Here is a test fitting. I'll wire it up tonight. I tested it with some jumpers and it works just wiring the two of the wires as Donh suggested above. I'll ground the sleeve to the sifter too.

Wally, as for the metal. We'll see. If you look at the photos you'll see there is no place for air/sound to get into the hollow in the back of the shifter so I don't think the shell will wreak havoc. We'll see. It's a good point. Tapping on the shell doesn't give you any real ringing, so maybe that's a good sign that it won't create any odd resonance.

Here it is with the cap on:

http://i.imgur.com/VVnTe.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CaXDA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/V9vTY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ot9mY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sYs3I.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/DZCVf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/e0eug.jpg

I'm on the hunt now for some thin foam that will make a good windscreen under the wire mesh cap.

nice dude! that's awesome!!!

First attempt at wiring seems to work. I'll experiment with more options this weekend.

http://i.imgur.com/iSOn6.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/MCUED.jpg

Cool Project. That link I posted shows various wiring schemes.

Hackworth. Yeah, I used one of those but instead of using an XLR connector to 1/4" I just hard-wired it to the element and finished it off with a 1/4" jack at the end of the cable.

Nothing new to see here. Just some new, sharper photos showing the gasket. It looks like it might not be a perfect seal due to the cap locking dents, but the gasket is about 2.5" deep and is compressed against the sides of the shell by the force of the cartridge being squeezed in there.

Sounds great through my tremolux. I also mic'ed up the amp and recorded a little guitar. Get's a neat, old-fashioned limited sound.

Now I just need to cook up a mounting system so I can attach it to a stand properly. And then I need to find a respectable piece of foam to replace the torn up piece in there now. That piece had fallen out of a pair of headphones.

http://i.imgur.com/Vo2YY.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zErlp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oXEFu.jpg

Well. I was going to try to build a shockmount but I've got enough on my plate and I saw this thing on ebay, free shipping and a "make an offer" button. I've never successfully had the make it offer thing work but they took my 12 dollar offer and a week later here it is. I was afraid it would be some plastic junk, painted to look like metal but it's actually really well constructed and is the perfect size for my "Sifter".

This is the ebay link. They have lots for sale. If anyone else wants to build a "sifter" this is the mount for it. (http://www.ebay.com/itm/290657990079?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648)

Here are all the glamour shots.

http://i.imgur.com/l5FDE.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/2NzoT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/yGLox.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/guzAR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GkVgP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Uwb5z.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CaVEA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NQkvp.jpg

Very nice. And now...........sound clips? :wink:

Mark

Sound clip coming soon. I'll set up another mic and do an A/B comparison.
So far it works well.

Here is a dinky demo of the sifter in action (http://kiwi6.com/file/3pq0dpsa22).

I used it to record the two guitar parts. Just set the mic an inch from one speaker on my tremolux. Turned up to 3 (the baby was asleep in the next room). Ran that into my ART tube MP and out to my imac/garageband through the 1/8" input.

You get the idea. I'll mess around with it some more but I like how it sounds. Gives it a thinned out wiry sound. I'll record something with the same guitar part sometime back to back with different mics so you can hear the comparison.