Around 8 bucks eh,.. man ya should have bought a bunch of em <. ya can still buy em,. The original Astatic MC-151 w/paper label MC-151 element for 1 hundred sixty Bucks ,.Yes ,.160.00 Bucks. ---------- Simply Unique Kustom Mic's By Rharley
I bought 12 elements for $7.42 a peice 20 years ago! I thought they were made in Ohio. I have a few left if anyone wants to buy them as a package deal. I don't know how many I have, but if some one wants to try some different elements I have a few different types that I'll never use! I'm sure I have 4 or 5 anyway. I'll sell them all for $100
From when I started out, the crystals definitely varied quite a bit from each other back in the old days and you could have 5 crystals and have 5 different sounds, largly more based on its overall output volume wise more than anything else. I played a 50's JT30 once that had a crystal in it that was so damned hot I almost couldn't turn the amp on at all (going thru my real '59 Bassman that I still own to this day)), and what I found out later on was that the really hot crystals had truckloads of bottom end response that you actually needed to roll the bass setting BACK rather than floor it or you couldn't turn the amp on at all.
The new stuff by Kobitone is a lot more trebly to my ears than the classic MC-151's ever were.
@chromatic blues--I remember those very same prices back then myself and being able to buy a JT30 with the desk stand it used to come with in NYC for $14.00, and without the stand for $9.50 brand new.
Astatic essentially stopped making the crystals themselves around the time they went on strike in 1984, and then outsourced from another company for a couple of years, and they weren't that great sounding, and arond 1989, they found another company to make them closer to the original specs until that company finally discontinued making them entirely.
From my experience, the XLR connector give the crystal less output than the screw on connector did, plus you were more likely to come across a bad or incorrectly wired cable than the screw on setup. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
@Chromatic blues - I'm interested, please contact me. greg at heumann dot com
@BBQBob - there is no reason the XLR connector itself should give less output - the currents involved are miniscule and the resistance of either kind of connection is so close to zero ohms that signal loss is negligible. However I couldn't agree with you more when you say "you were more likely to come across a bad or incorrectly wired cable than the screw on setup"
High impedance XLR confuses the hell out of everyone. I hate it. I spend a LOT of time educating my customers about it and solving their problems. Among my gear, XLR is ONLY for low impedance - any mic or cable with an XLR connector found in my gear is low impedance only. My high impedance stuff is all screw-on at the mic end and 1/4" everywhere else. If you see screw-on or 1/4", it means high impedance. That;'s how to keep it simple and avoid confusion. ---------- /Greg
I have the CAD version(in a rare turquoise/chrome paint scheme-most were black and gold apparently) of the BB with the 127/151 and a 250K pot and an XLR. It came from the factory wired wrong, with unacceptably low gain. Harveyharp fixed it, and now it sounds pretty damn good. When I'm up for playing a bullet mic, that's the one I grab. I think I paid around 70 bucks for it in the mid 90s. ----------
Crescent City Harmonica Club Todd L Greene, Co-Founder
Last Edited by on Jul 07, 2010 3:16 PM
the number 127 is the designation for ASTATICS ceramic element. i guess they had lots of leftover 127 houseings and just put 151 (crystals) in them with that paper stamp indicating 151.
Greg mate keep up the good work we need to know about deals like this down my way Bro,man i'm not going to show this to my Buddy he will go off the deep end he is the owner of the mic in the vidio clip,
it's a cheap deal For Australians well worth every penny if you where looking for your first rig to play befor ripping the guts out later down the track,
Check it out compared to the current Australian dollar
JT-30 Roadhouse US-$69 = AUS-$81 + post US-$25 = AUS-$110
in Australian Muso Shops a JT-30 Blues Blaster will set you back AUS-$339
and i can get one from you guys to my door for $110 Australian i love America!!!!
now what will i do with the Australian $229 i got left over??i can buy 3 slabs of Piss shampers for the ladys some nibbly bits,
grab my amp Jam with my Bro's playing my new Mic every one gets smashed and we will still have 30 bucks left for Pizza at the end of the night:)
like i say above i don't think i should show this Thread to my Bro who owns this mic..
3 slabs of Piss shampers for the ladys some nibbly bits
N.O.D - dude -I have no friggin' idea what you're talking about. I wish I understood more of what you wrote because I generally like the part i DO understand.
Guess I waited too long to buy the JT30. It's back at 99.99. But thanks for pointing it out, Greg. This kind of advice is helpful for those of us not so familiar with harp gear.
Greg, the XLR shouldn't make a difference in the output, but what I've found is that the XLR to 1/4" cables you buy aren't using single conductor cable like the original screw on connector cables or guitar cables use, but the same two conductor Low-Z cables with one of the conductors grounded together with the ground wire at the 1/4" plug end and when you get rid of that setup and put in the screw on connector using the screw on connector cable or the adapter from screw on to 1/4" and use a guitar cable (which you have a far wider variety of good choices for cables), I noticed the output was often hotter than the XLR high-z cables. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
