Oktava 219 mods

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gutsofgold
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Oktava 219 mods

Post by gutsofgold » Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:26 pm

I have my 219 open and I just removed the extra windscreen, removed those metal gates on the outside, and those HF resonate discs as well.

I'd like to replace the components with higher quality ones as well. I was thinking of using Poly film or metal stack film capacitors to replace all those tiny tantalum ones in there now. Think this would help much?

The resistors seem to be carbon film...if it would make a difference I will replace those with metal film.

Am I on a productive path? Or just wasting my time? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

kayagum
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Post by kayagum » Sat Mar 15, 2008 4:09 pm

You're reverse engineering http://oktavamod.com - the Premium Electronics mod.... if you can do it on your own, all power to you.

gutsofgold
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Post by gutsofgold » Sat Mar 15, 2008 11:53 pm

I've had a 219 modded Michael actually! I sold it and kept a stock one around...now I am kind of missing it. I also want to learn a bit about whats going on inside these mics, which isn't much really.

My question was just a matter of what type of components to use.

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Brian
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Post by Brian » Tue Jul 22, 2008 12:51 pm

Diferent values of caps will effect the shape and scope of the audio spectrum and how loud it may be.
Rupert Neve once posted that the reason he kept the Tantalum Caps in the circuit of the 8068 was because they had even order harmonic distortion that was pleasing to the listener.
Film caps have a faster recovery time and make the mics sound more precise.
Polystyrene make the upper mids bloom if they are in the right range for the circuit.
I almost threw out a 4 channel tube GTR pre someone gave me (I never tried it out) and I tried it today on an old fender bandmaster. IT TOTALLY ROCKS and the mid bloom is ferrocious, two polystyrenes in the front. Perfect match.
I've modded 4 x 319's and 5 x 012's in the last week and ressurrected a dead 319 that never worked. I just burned them in and checked them, they are all distinctly different sounding now and very usable on gtr amps which they were NOT before. They also seem to be able to take a lot more SPL than before.
Before they were very fluffy bottomed and grainy on top seemed like they were missing some midbass and mids. Now they are a little more balanced and seem like they are pushing more juice down the line. I don't have to crank the preamps so hard anymore. I also noticed that they have a more forgiving pickup pattern. They sound like they have a transformer in them now which I love. I don't have to EQ any of them.
I went to extreme lengths to mod them put in ridiculous wire, driled holes in the boards, moved things from one side to another to fit in parts and got ridiculous resistors for them. I have another big parts order coming in this wek and I will do more to them. It was well worth it to get a mic that is now extremely recordable.
Last edited by Brian on Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by @?,*???&? » Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:51 pm

You can totally mod these for free with a hammer and you'll never be tempted to use these terrible mics again.

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Post by rwc » Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:12 pm

@?,*???&? wrote:You can totally mod these for free with a hammer and you'll never be tempted to use these terrible mics again.
excluding one case in the past two years I have never, EVER been happy I put these up for anything.
Real friends stab you in the front.

Oscar Wilde

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Brian
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Post by Brian » Tue Jul 22, 2008 3:53 pm

I TOTALLY agree.
When I first got mine, I thought, these MIGHT work for something or I'll pull'em apart cuz I got them at the $69/2 price.
I tried them on everything, they SUCKED!
It didn't matter what I put them on. They were too clean, or, had no give in them or had way to much sub freq, or needed too much gain boost and then they still sucked unless it was a solo acoustic GTR. Sometimes they worked there.
Today I put them on an electric with no EQ or compression and they just flippin fit. They didn't screw up the sound of the amp either. That was a Fender amp, I'm going to put them on the Marshall in a few minutes and see what's u cuz they SUPER-SUCKED on that.
We'll see.
Last edited by Brian on Wed Jul 23, 2008 7:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by RefD » Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:43 am

modded, i like them alot on certain electric guitar sounds and certain male vocalists.

left stock, forget it.
?What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.? -- Seneca

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Post by Brian » Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:44 pm

I put them on the Marshall through my plain old Soundcraft Spirit mic pre, and they sounded fine, dark, but fine, kinda meaty. I put them through the Focusrite and all the top end that was garbled or missing in the soundcraft came straight through, making them good for leads. I wouldn't use an API style pre on them, I'd shoot for the Neve pre instead. You can hear more "iron"and meat in a neve pre.
I can use a 57 in the Focusrite.
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