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Author Topic: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.  (Read 9672 times)

Mike Diack

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Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« on: February 18, 2017, 04:54:32 AM »

Last night I did a sound gig for a bluegrass band who brought with them an Ear Trumpet "Edwina" mic. This thing looks like a slightly crude knock off of a 1930s Astatic D104 "Silver Eagle", much loved by ham radio ops of a certain age. The band had evolved a routine where the lead instrument of the moment, be it fiddle, mando, banjo, gat,or vox would step up to the Edwina, do their thing, then retreat for the next one. This sounded far better than it had any right to and got me thinking about the mic. Seems like these are handbuilt out of recovered materials but use a Chinese 1" 6 micron electret capsule. Anyone know anything about these capsules?. I have herds of D104s lying around just itching for conversion. My experiences with MXLs and the like make me wary of Chinese capsules but it's worth a crack.
M
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George Powell

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2017, 07:39:40 AM »

Last night I did a sound gig for a bluegrass band who brought with them an Ear Trumpet "Edwina" mic. This thing looks like a slightly crude knock off of a 1930s Astatic D104 "Silver Eagle", much loved by ham radio ops of a certain age. The band had evolved a routine where the lead instrument of the moment, be it fiddle, mando, banjo, gat,or vox would step up to the Edwina, do their thing, then retreat for the next one. This sounded far better than it had any right to and got me thinking about the mic. Seems like these are handbuilt out of recovered materials but use a Chinese 1" 6 micron electret capsule. Anyone know anything about these capsules?. I have herds of D104s lying around just itching for conversion. My experiences with MXLs and the like make me wary of Chinese capsules but it's worth a crack.
M
These are the goto bluegrass Mic's these days.  I met the fellow making them.  They are Chinese capsules and he makes them from parts from a good old hardware store.  Great gain before feedback.  A boutique mic if you will. Not really sure why they work so well but they do.  He didn't seem that technical a guy but the proof is in the pudding.  If you do any bluegrass it's the only mic you need.  The edwina is great and small.  His other Mic's can get a little big and might block the view to the person singing.  I sweep just a couple points out on channel strip and turn it up.  There is one out for upright bass also.  The price is great too at about $550 for the edwina. 


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Jamin Lynch

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2017, 01:11:29 PM »

I had a band show up at a venue were I often provide sound at with an Ear Trumpet "Louise" mic.

We were hesitant to use it but gave it a try. We were all astounded at the sound quality and pick up. It seemed to defy the proximity effect.

Although the stand up bass and acoustic were direct it easily picked up the vocals, fiddle and mandolin with good sound quality at 2-3ft. They just moved a bit closer for leads.

It gave the stage a more traditional Blue Grass look and feel.
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Scott Helmke

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2017, 08:04:20 PM »

The capsule is almost certainly a Transsounds TSB-2555, or a TSB-165. Very popular capsules in the DIY mic world for the past decade, and distributed by JLI Electronics.
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Dave Pluke

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2017, 08:34:18 AM »

It gave the stage a more traditional Blue Grass look and feel.

Yep.  Definitely fills a niche.

Lotsa bluegrass around these here parts.  I've been thinking of pickup up one of their offerings.

Dave
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Mike Sokol

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2017, 08:53:19 AM »

Last fall I did sound a bluegrass gig with three Ear Trumpet mics in a single stand with the musicians moving in and out of the pickup pattern to mix themselves. The band was very good at this and choreographed stepping up to the mics for a lead, and stepping back to play in chorus. Very entertaining to watch and the mics sounded great. I did have to hi-pass the mics around 100 Hz or so to control bass feedback since I had some big subwoofers on the system.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2017, 08:59:03 AM by Mike Sokol »
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Jay Barracato

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2017, 12:18:54 PM »

In that type of setting, since the band needs to blend themselves, is to lift the monitors up and run them as sidefills.

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Jay Barracato

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #7 on: February 19, 2017, 12:22:51 PM »

In that type of setting, since the band needs to blend themselves, is to lift the monitors up and run them as sidefills.

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Amen...IF they want monitors.  However...

A primary benefit of learning the single mic choreography is that you shouldn't need "no stinkin' monitors".
« Last Edit: February 19, 2017, 12:40:40 PM by dick rees »
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George Powell

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2017, 12:34:37 PM »

Last fall I did sound a bluegrass gig with three Ear Trumpet mics in a single stand with the musicians moving in and out of the pickup pattern to mix themselves. The band was very good at this and choreographed stepping up to the mics for a lead, and stepping back to play in chorus. Very entertaining to watch and the mics sounded great. I did have to hi-pass the mics around 100 Hz or so to control bass feedback since I had some big subwoofers on the system.
That would be the Hillbilly Gypsies.. They had an AT  4030 capsule jammed into some old time radio announcer looking mic.  Last year at one of the many BG festivals I did the banjo player screamed into the mic between songs so much he blew the diaphragm out so the next set they used my Edwina.  They must of liked it.  The fiddle player Greg in the picture also plays in my Bluegrass band.  Just gigged with him Friday.  Greg told me they just started trying to use monitors. They never used to. 


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Mike Sokol

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2017, 12:50:25 PM »

In that type of setting, since the band needs to blend themselves, is to lift the monitors up and run them as sidefills.

Since I had four independent monitor mixes from the previous band (this was a wine festival with a bunch of different bluegrass acts), I pulled the cabinets around to the upstage/downstage sides and duplicated the stereo house mix in the right and left wedges. They said they were used to working with no monitors at all, so I just needed to get monitor levels up to approximately acoustic guitar SPL. Then they were happy as can be. Of course, once we got the monitors dialed in I just mixed their three Ear Trumpet mics to left, center and right in the stereo FOH speakers. After that I didn't have to do a thing... just let them play and mix themselves. The house heard what they heard, and it was great.

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Re: Ear Trumpet "Edwina" microphone.
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2017, 12:50:25 PM »


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