1930's era ribbon microphone

[Rupert T. Firefly]

I sculpted this a few years ago, made the molds, cast the parts, cleaned and painted the parts. I was watching "Woman of the Year" with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn and an unpainted version was in the film.

 

[BigFitz]

Fantastic work!

 

[vitanola]

Nice work indeed!

Copy of a Universal AV 951 velocity microphone.

Having owned and restored numerous examples of these I would make but one suggestion; when duplicating this sort of work one must remember the techniques used to manufacture the original.

Most parts could have used just a bit more of a radius at their edges.

The yoke, for example, was originally bent up from a piece of steel bar stock, whcih was then brazed to a threaded sleeve, which was a turret lathe part, as we're the adjusting nuts. The D1 version was Origianlly offered with a cast aluminum yoke which had somewhat more tight radii, but even it was sand cast and machine buffed, and so it had a softer profile.

At this period Universal was yet a small specialty producer, and so sand cast and hand finished its aluminum parts. Only later did they use die castings.

The edges of the case also had more of a radius, doubtless due to its being polished up before plating, and the grille not only had a bit of a radius at its edges, but bulged a bit at center to allow for the bundled silk wind packing necessary to prevent the microphone's ribbon from being damaged by stray breezes.

That said, your unit "reads" very well indeed, and the above remarks are really mere quibbles, for your work appears to be superb.

 

[Rupert T. Firefly]

Always one guy who enjoys telling you what you got wrong. :-/
I did my best for what I could find for reference(photos).

 

[vitanola]

Always one guy who enjoys telling you what you got wrong. :-/
I did my best for what I could find for reference(photos).

No, no! My comments were but minor quibbles when compared to the really fine quality of your work. I'm sorry if I came across as carping. Your work appears to be so careful and exacting. In my rather clumsy way I was trying to offer very minor, though constructive criticism from the point of view of one who has oft handled the original item that you have so well copied. The points that I made are indeed matters of fine detail, not easily discerned from a photograph.

I've done a fair amount of commercial prop work myself, and have always hated having to re-create from only a photograph, for there is always some detail which doesen't quite come across in pictures. This is not terribly important in stage work, of course, but is a real concern in television and motion picture work, though it is seldom a concern of one's immediate customer (the prop-master or art director) for whom close is usually good enough.

 

[Rupert T. Firefly]

I'm sorry. I have spent too much at movie prop boards. Those guys love to point out what they think are errors. I made an entirely custom prop never seen by or made by anyone and someone said I did it wrong.

 

[vitanola]

I'm sorry. I have spent too much at movie prop boards. Those guys love to point out what they think are errors. I made an entirely custom prop never seen by or made by anyone and someone said I did it wrong.

I hear you, brother! About twenty years ago I designed a recording studio set for a touring production of some play about Bessie Smith. The action took place in 1927-8. The. Director found the monks cloth hangings and the Western Electric 1A microphone housing to be unacceptable, for everyone knows that in 1928 recording studios were lined with acoustic tiles and used Sure Unidyne II microphones, just as seen in those photographs of Elvis recording at Sun Studios. Sheesh!