August 2013 – Xaudia

20-08-2013

Lustraphone Badges in stock!

I see a lot of Lustraphone VR53 mics around that have lost their original badges – like the ones on the left and right. The glue that was used wasn’t great, and they look rather sad without their original nameplate.

Replacement Lustraphone badge

I am delighted to say that we have just taken delivery of some replacement badges for these that look absolutely fabulous. They have a silver logo on a vintage cream background, just like the originals.

Lustraphone VR53 with new badge!

They of course also fit the Grundig, Pamphonic and Mimco badged versions of the VR53, and also some of the small Lustraphone dynamics too.

Lustraphone dynamic with new badge!

The badges are £5 each plus post from the Xaudia website.

(Thanks to Best Badges for their excellent service!)

12-08-2013

Ervox R58 – French ribbon mic

Today on the bench we have an unusual microphone from France. I have never heard of this brand!

Ervox R58 ribbon mic

The Ervox R58 is a high impedance ribbon microphone designed for public address or home taping to a reel-to-reel recorder. It is made from a two part cast body, perhaps inspired by the RCA Varacoustic, and is nicely finished in hammertone paint. Paint still covers two of the screws, so I can see that I am the first person to look inside this one, which is always a nice feeling, like unwrapping a present!

Ervox R58, rear

Inside the mic everything looks nice and clean. The motor is built around a sturdy block of clear plastic with a large horseshoe magnet to the rear, and the ribbon itself is a piston-style design similar to those found in B&O and Altec microphones.

Inside the Ervox R58

Unfortunately the transformer is not working properly – the inductance measures only 14 microhenries, which for an (estimated) 0.2 ohm ribbon would make a HPF filter at around 2KHz… I’m sure it can’t have been designed like that, so one suspects either insulation breakdown and a short, or the laminations have deteriorated with age and lost some permeability.

Ervox ribbon motor assembly

I’m not sure if it is worth the effort of re-winding this one, particularly if the lams are below spec. Luckily we can make a new low impedance tranny for it and bring it back to life.

The previous owner kindly included this scan of a wiring diagram for the mic.

09-08-2013

Beebs to Belgium!

We have just shipped this rather lovely set of Reslo microphones to Thomas at Le Lupanar Studios in Belgium. He will be recording a brass section with two of our ‘Beeb’ Reslos, and a pair of upgraded cardioid Reslo CR mics on goosenecks.

His studio is still under construction but Thomas has been making a photo diary of the project – from the pictures so far it will be an amazing facility in a great location! How’s this for soundproofing…

Good luck with the building, and we will watch with interest as it all comes together.
🙂

08-08-2013

Reslo Beebs in Organ Action

Organist Andy Wright used a pair of our Xaudia Reslo ‘Beeb’ ribbon microphones to record his organ playing at St Peter and St Paul Church, Kimpton, Hertfordshire.

Reslos at St Peter and St Paul Church, Kimpton

He kindly sent in this brilliant photo, and an .mp3 file too so that we can hear how it sounds!

Organ recording with Beeb Reslos – Andy Wright.

(Or download the file)

The recording was made with the mics plugged straight into a Tascam DR100 mk 2 and recorded in wav mode, then compressed to mp3 in Soundforge.

In the eighties and early nineties Hyperion Records used the organ to record classical music, including string quartets, piano solo and the Kings Consort doing The Four Seasons. Eventually Luton Airport, about 8 miles away, got too busy!

The Reslo RB mics are perhaps most famous for being used by the Beatles in their Cavern Club days. As a young photographer, Andy was assigned to one of their early gigs, and here are some of those photos at the Daily Mail website.

One of Andy’s photos of the Beatles

You can see more of Andy’s photos at his website.

07-08-2013

Stereo guitar switching box

Carrying on from my previous post….

Matt from Bobby and Jemima, had one of our stereo pickups fitted to his guitar. For stage use, we made him one of these….

3 channel guitar switch box

It’s a very simple custom 3 channel foot-switch box, which lets him control each of the bass, treble and rhythm channels separately. I was pleased with how it came out. Hammertone paint always gives things a 1950s industrial look.

The battery just lights the three LEDs, and should last for ages, so long as the cables are unplugged when not in use.

06-08-2013

Pickup fitting with Bobby and Jemima

I recently installed one of our hexaphonic pickup systems into a a guitar for Matt Shaw, who is one half of Bobby and Jemima.

Bobby and Jemima… AKA Charlese and Matt (not sure who is who!)

Matt provides a large chunk of the music for the act, playing guitar and drums – often at the same time – and he wanted to be able to send bass runs on the lower strings to a bass amp whilst simultaneously playing the melody and lead from the top strings out through a guitar amp. No problem at all!

I fitted a hexapup to the bridge position, wired out to a pair of output jacks, and an additional toggle switch gave the option of sending the G-string to either the bass or treble output. And we put one of our new P90 pickups in the neck position, with its own output for a third amplifier. Now Matt can make a lot of noise with one guitar!

Many thanks to Karen Duckworth who hung out with us for the afternoon and took these marvellous photos.