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[Taylor Phillips]

We've been having a different drummer every week for the Tuesday night college&singles service I run and this week we had acoustic drums instead of the church's electric kit.  Anyway, the worship leader lent his personal SM57 to snare drum duty.  I needed more snare in the house, but when I turned it all the way up, there was no more snare in the house than there was before.  I made sure it was routed to the stereo buss, and that plenty of lights were flashing on the meter.  Then I cued it in my headphones, and while the high-hat came through fine, every time the he hit the snare, there was only a quiet crackle.  I'm wondering if the mic is damaged or if it is a knockoff that can't handle the SPL coming from the snare drum.  What are ways to tell if it's a real Shure or a knockoff?

-By the way, pretty much everyone liked the acoustic drums better than the electric.  Just wish I could've put more snare in the house!

[chuck clark]

Might be a knockoff, but try the cheap fix first. Change the cable. If that doesn't work, change the mic. I once had a 57 ruined by a few wicked errant drum stick hits. After giving the poor mic a black eye and 2 missing teeth the drummer finally hit something vital. I now position mics just OFF the edge of the drum.  Sounds nice, ...a bit woody, but really quite nice.
Chuck

[Jeff Bankston]

unscrew the capsule head and see if its got a black and white wire. if yes then its a fake ! i found this out a few years ago. i called shure and they said for sure they are well aware of the fakes. seems they were sent a few for warranty reasons. someone else axked this in another thread. btw i unknowingly bought a fake 57. it works fine. beware of the fake 57 & 58. for sure for shure good buddy , 10-4 !!!

[Jim Le Gros]

There are some Chinese copy's around, I have never yet completely destroyed a SM57 Capsule, though (of course) it is possible!

A copy in Europe is http://www.adamhall.com/uk/AH_p--project_27__b--D1057 Though I doubt you will see many of these in the USA depending on import restrictions.

I'd check your wiring first, just use a known good XLR Cable and connect it directly to the back of your console to see if the mic works that way.

Jim.

[Matthias Heitzer]

The Adam Hall mic is a different story, there are a lot of "lookalikes" out there, in Europe and America (just look at some Samson or Behringer mics, or how many mics are similar to a Neumann u87).
As long as it has an own name and they don't write "shure" on it, it can be tolerated.
The customers know that they do not buy the shure quality, nor the service.

But there are quite a lot of Chinese copies labeled as shure, especially on ebay.
they usually are just a bit cheaper than the original (10-20%) or sold as "used item"

Best way to check would be to compare it to a known original. Place the two in front of a soundsource and listen via headphones.

[ProSoundWeb Community]