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Title: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Joe Sawaya on July 03, 2011, 07:49:30 PM
I just reached into the washing machine and pulled out my clothes. . . and my Beta 98 that I now remember was in a pocket (because I found it on the floor after a volunteer crew strike! AAAARRRRGGGG!!!!).

Am I out of luck with this mic? My cables are with the rest of the rig in another town tonight. I've had mics get pretty wet in the rain before, but not twenty minutes of churning water and laundry detergent.

Joe
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Jonathan Johnson on July 03, 2011, 11:38:53 PM
I just reached into the washing machine and pulled out my clothes. . . and my Beta 98 that I now remember was in a pocket (because I found it on the floor after a volunteer crew strike! AAAARRRRGGGG!!!!).

Am I out of luck with this mic? My cables are with the rest of the rig in another town tonight. I've had mics get pretty wet in the rain before, but not twenty minutes of churning water and laundry detergent.

Joe
I could make a joke about it having a "clean, sparkly" sound but I won't.
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Ben Johnson on July 04, 2011, 02:42:34 PM
I've had mics get pretty wet in the rain before, but not twenty minutes of churning water and laundry detergent.

Joe

This is my generic response for electronics, not something mic specific. 
I'd give it another rinse or bath in distilled water to try and remove any remaining detergent or dirt (I don't know the PH of detergent or specifically if it will corrode electronics, but the mic got wet already so I don't think it can hurt it more...)

Then I'd make sure it dried _fully_ before trying it again.  I've never opened a B98, can it be easily opened/disassembled to any point?   Either way, I'd let it dry either in the sun (on a not too hot day) or in front of a fan for several days, or something to insure that there's no water in any nooks or recesses.

After that I'd try it.  Compare it to other B98s, see if it still sounds the same.  It it works, I'd label it so that you always know which one it was and you can keep it on less important inputs.  Should it eventually have an early failure, I'd rather lose one tom channel than a bell mounted sax solo mic.

Anyone with more experience can jump in, none of what I've said here is really specific to microphones.
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Dave Scarlett on July 04, 2011, 06:31:00 PM
58's don't seem to mind the occasional beer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vToepYWmOq4

Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Jonathan Johnson on July 04, 2011, 11:14:05 PM
A common recommendation for dunked cell phones is to place it in a bag of rice to dry it out.

I sent my phone through the wash. I managed to get it dried out enough so it would fire up so I could get the info off of it, but it never really did work right after that. Luckily, the contract had just expired and I wanted to get a fancy new Android phone anyway.
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Scott Allen on July 07, 2011, 01:46:36 PM
Vanilla Ice dumped half a bottle of Listerine on one of my mics one time, it worked great all night, and still rocks til this day! It's lost the minty fresh smell though  :(

Good luck! let me know how it goes, I prob need to steam sanitize all my mics come to think of it....
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Mike Caldwell on July 07, 2011, 04:54:56 PM
Vanilla Ice dumped half a bottle of Listerine on one of my mics one time, it worked great all night, and still rocks til this day! It's lost the minty fresh smell though  :(

Good luck! let me know how it goes, I prob need to steam sanitize all my mics come to think of it....

I would have told him he just bought the "mic mic baby"
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Nathan DePaulo on July 09, 2011, 12:20:14 AM
Vanilla Ice dumped half a bottle of Listerine on one of my mics one time, it worked great all night, and still rocks til this day! It's lost the minty fresh smell though  :(

Good luck! let me know how it goes, I prob need to steam sanitize all my mics come to think of it....

I would have told him he just bought the "mic mic baby"

Maybe it smelled and he was doing a favor?
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Scott Allen on July 10, 2011, 01:05:08 PM
I would have told him he just bought the "mic mic baby"


Maybe it smelled and he was doing a favor?

Naa, the mic was pretty new, he wanted to make sure he didn't catch a cold or anything from a previous user, I can't say I blame him. I carry my own mic for that very reason.

Judging by another thread going on right now, listerine is a good way to clean your mics.
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Jack Kontney on July 11, 2011, 12:53:04 PM
Naa, the mic was pretty new, he wanted to make sure he didn't catch a cold or anything from a previous user, I can't say I blame him. I carry my own mic for that very reason.

Judging by another thread going on right now, listerine is a good way to clean your mics.

Listerine is a labor-intensive way to clean mics. All the cool kids are using Microphome, which kills the germs, leaves a nice scent, and even dissolves crud. No need to disassemble the mic, as the foam dissipates in about 2 minutes and leaves no residue. Ten cents per treatment, fast and easy.
Web: http://microphome.com

Regarding the B98, don't try to take it apart. That's just crazy talk. Since it's already been soaked, the distilled water rinse is a no-lose idea. I suggest a fan to dry it out afterwards. Good luck!
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Pete Bansen on July 15, 2011, 11:55:07 PM
Am I out of luck with this mic? My cables are with the rest of the rig in another town tonight. I've had mics get pretty wet in the rain before, but not twenty minutes of churning water and laundry detergent.

My guess is that you are out of luck, but I hope that you'll report back once you have had a chance to rinse it, bury it in rice or dunk it in a pint of stout...
Title: Re: Washing mics: Regular or Gentle cycle?
Post by: Dave Barnett on July 16, 2011, 04:34:36 PM
It's probably time to take advantage of Shure's exchange service:

http://www.shure.com/idc/groups/primary_content/@americas/documents/webcontent/pdf_en_us_service_fees.pdf

$59 for a Beta98.
Title: Follow up
Post by: Joe Sawaya on July 18, 2011, 09:55:05 PM
The mic sat on the kitchen counter in a dry, air-conditioned house before I got the chance to put it back in the mic box. I didn't do anything else to it (rice, distilled water flush, etc) like I wanted to. I finally had a minute tonight to plug it in. I'm no tom drum, but my "check-one-two" sounded pretty clean through it. I'll try it on a high SPL source soon. But the first diagnosis seems to indicate the dodging of a bullet.

Thank you for your comments.

Joe
Title: Re: Follow up
Post by: Albert Thomas on July 19, 2011, 12:48:07 AM
The mic sat on the kitchen counter in a dry, air-conditioned house before I got the chance to put it back in the mic box. I didn't do anything else to it (rice, distilled water flush, etc) like I wanted to. I finally had a minute tonight to plug it in. I'm no tom drum, but my "check-one-two" sounded pretty clean through it. I'll try it on a high SPL source soon. But the first diagnosis seems to indicate the dodging of a bullet.

Thank you for your comments.

Joe

Cool! Good testimonial for the toughness of Shure mics.