MD 409 in pieces

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vvv
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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by vvv » Tue Sep 17, 2019 5:12 am

Me, I'd be epoxying ...
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frans_13
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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by frans_13 » Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:19 am

mwerden wrote:
Wed Sep 11, 2019 9:38 am
I have 2 MD409s .... are literally falling apart. I want to put the capsules in a new home
What is it that falls apart with your 409s? Its basically two halves of wire mesh, the frame around them and the little piece that keeps those three together, has two holes for the screws and the shaft with the XLR inlet. Having dismantled a few dozend of them to service the decaying foam that went gooey and sticky and flaky over 3 decades i never saw a small transformer or any kind of circuitry in there. Having taken apart the capsule on occasions i can say that i didn't find andything like circuitry in there either. You can open the 409, very carefully desolder the contacts (not too much heat on the iron, please) and fix them in anything as long as you rest them in foam of similar density, as one Sennheiser tech told me. I put 409 capsules in D12 corpses, in the carcasses of cheap chinese condensers that really deserved to die and other housings that have enough space. If you are into heresy you could fix them in a dead Beyer M380....
Due to luck and circumstances i am offering a limited run of Beyerdynamic M380 clones with unused Beyer capsules. PM me for info.

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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by mwerden » Mon Sep 23, 2019 10:47 am

frans_13 wrote:
Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:19 am
What is it that falls apart with your 409s?
Just for clarity's sake, they could be put back together but I want them to actually look nice. Everything's a little warbly, original screws are long gone, scratches and whatnot on the bodies. A previous owner literally scratched his name into the side. So in case you were wondering, Evan is a doofus.

In other news, do you know what the "right" kind of foam is and/or where I can get? I suppose I'll just put them back together for now...
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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by frans_13 » Mon Sep 23, 2019 11:20 am

You could as well spray paint your pieces before you put them together. As they are not that shiny anymore it can only get better. If you're traditional, go with gold/black. If you're into the PR30, go with red and black. If you're into norwegian death metal, paint it black, very black and "a hole in spacetime"-extra black. If you're into Jamaica, yellow, red, green. If you don't want it stolen, paint it day-glow-orange. With some glittery violet.
Due to luck and circumstances i am offering a limited run of Beyerdynamic M380 clones with unused Beyer capsules. PM me for info.

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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by mwerden » Mon Sep 23, 2019 11:40 am

Excellent color recs. I'm all out of glittery violet, do you think semi-gloss violet will work as a theft deterrent? And what about the foam color???
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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by frans_13 » Mon Sep 23, 2019 11:14 pm

That got me off guard - i only got a crate of foam from Sennheiser back then and it's a flashy kind of dark grey. In the greyest way possible. I suspect contrasting colors would benefit the guitar sound, like red-green, yellow-violet, orange-blue. The foam got to be of roughly the firmness/hardness of a kitchen sponge, the scratchy yellow ones if you got these in the states. Not too soft, Sennheiser planned the foam density into the feedback path of the pickup pattern, that's one of the reasons that some ancient mics having the same capsule sound different. Then there's the little silk piece front and back that prevents dust/dirt entering the housing (between the wire mesh and the foam), you could wash that with the stuff you do your dishes with.. or cut two pieces from your niece's prom dress. On the back, where she's less likely to notice it.
Due to luck and circumstances i am offering a limited run of Beyerdynamic M380 clones with unused Beyer capsules. PM me for info.

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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by mwerden » Tue Sep 24, 2019 7:36 am

Always take it from the back, duh.

OK. I'm not having much luck with replacing the bodies, so how about this. What kind of foam do I get? This?

https://www.thefoamfactory.com/opencell ... oal-F.html
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Nick Sevilla
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Re: MD 409 in pieces

Post by Nick Sevilla » Tue Sep 24, 2019 6:14 pm

Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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