What's the most expensive Mic you've ever dropped?

[RefD]

So basicall my friend dropped a load over all of our gear (amps, cabinets, drums, you name it, it was covered in shit.)

oh. wow.

can't (and don't want to!) top that.

worst i ever did was stick the headstock of a friend's early-60s slab-board Strat into a running ceiling fan.

we both screamed.

broke one of the fan blades off but only put a tiny ding into the headstock.

much laughter ensued and we took a break and had a beer before continuing recording.

[emrr]

Acoustic instruments are the easiest to destroy, and you have to treat them like you are babysitting a 3 month old child. Or you'll put a foot through it. I've had several $1/4mil instruments brought to my place this year, and you'd never know it if you weren't clued in. Certainly I'd have seen a handgun if anything had happened.

But that's off topic; thanks Joel!

I drop mics when they have a fast release clip that fails to do it's job. Had a Beyer M160/M130 mid-side pair come off a boom when the clip failed this week. While I was in the act of plugging the cables. Still works fine, somehow.

Had a brand new Gefell UMT70S in it's box, just arrived, meet the counter-weight end of an Atlas 36W stand that decided to topple (hint; these things like to have a mic on the other end when horizontal or they aren't balanced). Hit it like a hammer and split the wooden box. Hadn't even hooked up the mic yet. Mic was fine.

[scott anthony]

I drop mics when they have a fast release clip that fails to do it's job.

I was told once by a reliable source that Peter Gabriel banned all Sennheiser 421 mics from his stage and studio because of the clip.

[the finger genius]

Acoustic instruments are the easiest to destroy, and you have to treat them like you are babysitting a 3 month old child. Or you'll put a foot through it. I've had several $1/4mil instruments brought to my place this year, and you'd never know it if you weren't clued in. Certainly I'd have seen a handgun if anything had happened.

I remember on one of my craziest sessions, the studio had arranged for the rental of a 30 year old Gibson Acoustic for a session involving a very famous female songwriter who definitely was not in her right mind.

I'll never forget the look of horror on the Producer's face as she began pounding on the thing, using a quarter as a pick. (Let this be a lesson to all engineer and assistants, ALWAYS! keep a couple of guitar picks on hand.)

[ctmsound]

My boss friend the output tubes and a few small circuits on my marshall head last week from a mismatch in impedance. $100 later, it's fixed.

[emrr]

I drop mics when they have a fast release clip that fails to do it's job.

I was told once by a reliable source that Peter Gabriel banned all Sennheiser 421 mics from his stage and studio because of the clip.

i'd believe it!

[junomat]

ribot is a national treasure though!

aint that the truth... i may up him as an international treasure...

[cgarges]

As far as mics go, I think the worst I've done is drop a 414BULS from piano height. It was one of mine and that was maybe seven years ago and it still works fine.

I remember when I was out at Sunset Sound in LA and saw a 251 in pieces on the bench in the tech shop. Apparently, it was on a big-ass heavy Atlas or Neumann stand and a background vocalist moved the stand because it was "in her way." She happened to put the stand in a position where the couterweight was right behind a door. Someone came bolting through the door, which hit the weight and sent the mic careening into the nearby wall.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Cojonesonasteek]

I was carrying a 70s-vintage U87 into my house after picking it up from Mike Castoro of Wunder Audio, who'd had the capsule repaired by one of his talented colleagues. The latch on the non-original case opened as I turned the key to unlock the front door and the 87 crashed headfirst onto the concrete doorstep, breaking the capsule off inside the grille. Mike repaired the damage for free, and the mic sounds great.

[rydberg]

Here's my 251 horror story:

A while ago, we were borrowing a fairly large amount of a local audiophile's vintage microphone collection (long story). A pair of sequential serial number 251s, a pair of 47s, a pair of Sony C37-a's, and a 67. So one day I'm putting up one of the 251s, securing the mic with one hand while I make an adjustment to the stand. The mic literally comes apart in my hand. And no, I didn't have a death grip on it or try to over-torque the stand. The body shell separated from the chassis, if that makes any sense.



Total cold sweat, stomach-dropping, freak out moment. It's scary to be the guy holding a $10k microphone that, out of nowhere and for no apparent reason, blew up in your hand. Sent it off to Korby and they rebuilt it.


Needless to say, since then I'm even MORE careful with gear.



P.

[i am monster face]

First week at the studio...setting up a pair of RCA Varacoustics on those big Atlas stands. Both mics were freshly reribboned.

As I was walking out of the room i got caught on one of the cables and stumbled forward, pulling the mic stand around and catching the one of those booms right to the back of my head. the mic stand had no choice but to tip, and in my stumble, swinging the same way as the mic stand, I saw that it was going to tip, helicopter style and skid on the floor. I turned around and slid right underneath the microphone, catching it on my chest, laying right on the ground, as the rest of the weight of the mic stand crashed onto my groin/knee area.

The resulting crash tangled a 57 that was on the snare and pulled it, the stand, and the high hat, tipping them onto the floor. The high hat crashed onto a power supply for the U47.

No damage to anything. I was extremely lucky. Now I make sure there are no cable tangles on the ground and all of the mic stands are balanced and tight.

Ian

Oh, I dropped a 4050 from about 25 feet up. Smashed the ground, bent the grill to shit, still works fine.

[micyourbrain]

First week at the studio...setting up a pair of RCA Varacoustics on those big Atlas stands. Both mics were freshly reribboned.

As I was walking out of the room i got caught on one of the cables and stumbled forward, pulling the mic stand around and catching the one of those booms right to the back of my head. the mic stand had no choice but to tip, and in my stumble, swinging the same way as the mic stand, I saw that it was going to tip, helicopter style and skid on the floor. I turned around and slid right underneath the microphone, catching it on my chest, laying right on the ground, as the rest of the weight of the mic stand crashed onto my groin/knee area.

The resulting crash tangled a 57 that was on the snare and pulled it, the stand, and the high hat, tipping them onto the floor. The high hat crashed onto a power supply for the U47.

hahahhaa awesome! that was written really well - you can see it happen in slow mo. traumatic events do have a way of etching themselves into our memory and replaying over and over...

[Cojonesonasteek]

Here's my 251 horror story:

A while ago, we were borrowing a fairly large amount of a local audiophile's vintage microphone collection (long story). A pair of sequential serial number 251s, a pair of 47s, a pair of Sony C37-a's, and a 67. So one day I'm putting up one of the 251s, securing the mic with one hand while I make an adjustment to the stand. The mic literally comes apart in my hand. And no, I didn't have a death grip on it or try to over-torque the stand. The body shell separated from the chassis, if that makes any sense.



Total cold sweat, stomach-dropping, freak out moment. It's scary to be the guy holding a $10k microphone that, out of nowhere and for no apparent reason, blew up in your hand. Sent it off to Korby and they rebuilt it.

Needless to say, since then I'm even MORE careful with gear.

P.

On a tour of Blackbird Studios in Nashville, the studio manager handed me the only stereo 251 in existence (which he said was valued at $80K) and I simply refused to take it from him, fearing the worst.

[gregnrom]

About 8 years ago, I tripped on the Calrec Soundfield mkIV cable causing the stand, and mic (about $4k) to tip over from about 6 ft up. Fortunately, I was cleaning up alone, and could stew in shock without people staring at me. From then on, I always wind mic cables up the stand. That way, if someone tugs on it, it will pull the stand from the base as opposed to from the top. It gives you a little time.
The grille was knocked shitty, but the capsules were safe. About $400 repair.
Most mic manufacturers design their mics to survive this eventuality. 9 times out of 10, you will end up with a dented perfectly working mic. A friend of mine who worked at Shure told me stories of drop-testing their new ksm series. Sounded fun.
[fingers crossed]

[gregnrom]

On a tour of Blackbird Studios in Nashville, the studio manager handed me the only stereo 251 in existence (which he said was valued at $80K) and I simply refused to take it from him, fearing the worst.

P.S. No mic should be worth more than 5-10 thousand, even if John Lennon recorded all his demos on it then stuffed it up his butt.
... maybe if it were made of platinum, and stuffed up his butt.