The7thDave
7 posts
Jan 11, 2010
8:52 AM
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Hey everybody,
Due primarily to things said on this forum, I bought myself a little Danelectro HoneyTone mini-amp and a Bottle-O-Blues mic. I just received both last week, and have been playing like a little kid with them all weekend. I noticed an odd thing, though; and I thought I might get some insight about it here.
Before the B-O-B mic arrived, I tried plugging various old mics I had lying around into the HoneyTone. One was a cheapo, low-impedance mic for an old dictaphone-type cassette tape recorder. It actually sounded pretty good to my unsophisticated ears, even without an impedance-matching transformer. Kind of a nice distortion to it. When I plugged in the B-O-B, the sound was louder and less distorted (of course), but there was just a touch of 60 Hz hum to it. The volume of the hum increased a bit when I plugged the HoneyTone into its AC adapter. The hum is noticeable, but nowhere near loud enough to interfere with the harmonica playing. Strangely (to me), the little dictaphone mic has absolutely NO hum to it, regardless of whether the Honeytone is on AC or battery power.
Any comments on this phenomenon? What's going on here? Should I be concerned about the hum (i.e., do I perhaps have a bad ground or something)?
--Dave
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Hobostubs Ashlock
296 posts
Jan 11, 2010
9:01 AM
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i dont know alot about mics or eletronics,i have 3 allright mics green bullet my fav,egg static,so so for some things and a nady vocal mic havent got to try it on harp yet cause my cord got tore up a couple years befor i started playing harp and havent got it replaced,but from the info on the net,I guess any mic could potentially be a good harp mic,any kind,but not all just have to try it ive seen some cool recipes for building a mic on here with practically nothing,Makes me wonder why buy it just find one or build it
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MrVerylongusername
804 posts
Jan 11, 2010
10:50 AM
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Could it be to do with how the different mics are encased? A metal casing will be better at shielding things from EM interference
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bluemoose
103 posts
Jan 11, 2010
10:56 AM
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7th, check this out:
http://www.angelfire.com/music/harmonica/honeytone.html
He talks a bit about hum and grounding in the 7th mod.
Coincidence? I don't think so.....
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Tuckster
341 posts
Jan 11, 2010
11:08 AM
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If you're picking up hum when the HoneyTone is on battery power,you probably have a broken shield on the mic cable. Check for continuity with an ohmmeter,if you have one.
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The7thDave
8 posts
Jan 11, 2010
11:24 AM
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@Hobo: I really didn't expect much from the dictaphone mic, but was pleasantly surprised. On the other hand, some of my more expensive old mics were pretty disappointing.
@MrV: they both have plastic cases. I'll have to take the dictaphone mic apart and see if it has metal sheathing inside.
@bluemoose: That's a great page--I'm going to have to try some of those mods when I get up the nerve. I'll also check to see if there's a ground-wire flaw; although I'd think the dictaphone mike would hum as well if there were a grounding flaw inside the amp.
@Tuckster: I'll do that. I'll also try switching out the cables.
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congaron
404 posts
Jan 11, 2010
12:05 PM
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I have found that old cb radio mics really sound good, since vocal perection is not what those guys were ever looking for. Clarity with an edge was generally better..overmodulation to punch through. That translates to crunchy tone for harp that can be dirtied up easily with a tight cup and eq.
Sounds like a bad ground to me, either in the cable or the amp or the mic itself.
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