I'm looking to add another ribbon flavor to my toolbox, specifically for hvy elct gtr's, and was considering one of the Beyer mic's. Perhaps a Sank "DX" version of the M160, M260, or the M500 . I have an R-121 so I'm looking for a 'card' or 'hyper' pattern mic.

So which of these have you found to work best for you more times than not? Maybe something else in this price range that you feel works well? Your opinions would be most appreciated.

Back in the 70's I was with a band that spent a year at the Hit Factory recording an album that never got released. The engineer (Joe Finelli) went through every mic in the locker trying to find something that would work on my voice. He said there was a buzz-type frequency that he kept hearing, and all his Neumanns were actually accentuating the frequency.

End of the story, an RCA77DX.

Recently I bought a Beyer M260 with the Stephen Sank DX mod. AHHH! Smoothness personified. Also takes the annoying buzz out of some Marshall stacks.

Most ribbon mics are figure 8 by nature. The Beyers have baffles and stuff to make them hyper or cardiod. I dig my Sank'd 260 but I have blown it up. The new AEA looks interesting and it's about $1000.

Thanks guy's...

Anyone else have some comparisons between the Sank "DX" Beyer's they could share?

What also is cool with Beyer ribbons is that you can combine a 130 and 160 for MS recordings.

/Mats

I like 160's, notably for OH's but I wouldn't stick them too close to a roaring Marshall like I do with my R-121's. They're not as sturdy in my experience.

Yup, I know these mics are way more delicate than my R121. I will try to be carefull... just a bit. heh

I have a pair of M160's I use them for Overheads.
Replacing them with a stereo royer.
They will move to guitar amp mics, I just do not place them right in the grill as I do with a 57. Like all ribbons they are darker, you have eq them later...

A lot of Hendrix guitar tracks were recorded with M-160's. Mind you, those subjecting the mics to this abuse didn't own them, so they might not have minded the potential blow out as much as you might.

Bear

I tend to abuse mics that aren't mine. Well, not abuse but I'm not as worried about blowing them up. I'll stick a U87 in a kick and think nothing of it. If I owned it I'd stick with a 421 in the kick.

These mics. have been made for a long time and they're still available, that should give you some kind of clue. I never hear anyone talk about them much. I like the 260 for overheads and HH, I have 3, I have 2 JV74's for trumpet, fluglehorn, Ac. Gtr.. but the 160 works too and sounds cleaner (hypercardioid). I've never had a problem withguitar amps, it's better if you put them in a dog house for some reason. Depending on what type of sound you're going for, they work great for piano too. The M500 was Ol' Blue Eyes live mic. Sounds good on voice, trumpet and alto
Generally you need really quiet mic. pres. with lots of gain, but now Royer makes an active ribbon. Another ribbon is the Coles 4038, bidirectional. The Beyers sound great and they're cheaper. I've had mine for a while and I've never heard of the mod. What does it do? Where can you get it done? Any info would be appreciated.

I had very good results with beyers as overheads using M/S
You can do that with 130 (figure8) and 160(hypercardioid)
260 is hypercardioid too

I found Beyer to be often under estimated.

like them a lot

malice

Stephen Sank retrofits a DX77 ribbon element into the Beyer mic's. You can go to his webpage or you can do a Google search on it... Lot's of info there.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the responses on this... looks like I'm gonna' add a Sank M160DX to the "locker" and keep a good eye (ear?) on pressure levels for gtr amps.

Cool! I think you'll like it. I love mine. Some of my favorite vocals tracks that I've cut have been on my 160dx. I've never tried it on a guit amp though.

Yea, it seems like it might be the most versatile of the bunch. Of the Beyer stuff the 160's the only one I've used. It wasn't a "DX" but I remember liking it. I think it'll work out great.

For small gtr amps, Gibson, Supro, Ampeg Rocket, Fender Champ, Gorilla etc... it's great and no problem. For the big stuff you should be thinking 421,441, RE20, RE10, 414, 2xSM57 (one on the driver and one an inch back and 2 inches to the side). All depending on if you want to take the speaker sound or the whole cabinet sound. Thanks for the Sank site

With the exception of the RE10 and the 441 I've used or own all of those mic's and use them quite a bit on gtr amps. I wanted to add another flavor in a ribbon mic to my collection in particular. I have the R-121 and love the hell out of it but want another option. Thanks for the suggestions.

I really like the Beyer 260 with the DX mod on guitar cabinets. The Sank ribbon mod on an m500 didn't do much for me but an RCA ribbon in a B&O BM3 sounded close enough to a RCA 77 that sold my 77B1. BTW, I've owned a number of m500 and they all sounded quite different from one another. The Beyer m160 is a very useful mic and has more output than the typical ribbon as well as being hypercardiod. I use them on violins and strings. Your best bet is finding a used mic with a blown ribbon on ebay to get Stephen Sank to reribbon. You can save a lot of money that way.

I love my pair of M500 's on gtr cabs. Very natural, lush on clean electric gtr; their peaky high frequency is enough to make them stick out of a mix without the lower end sounding all carved up like a 57. With two guitarists, using the beyer on one of them really lets you hear both guitars. And as long as there's not a ton of low end whump going on Im not afraid to stick em right up to the grill on a marshall or the like.

People will usually have a 160 repaired rather than dump it on ebay for peanuts. The 260 and the 500 you'll see in various states of dis-repair but 160's tend to be quite a bit tougher to find like that. At least that's what I've found. Anyway, I've got a 160DX on the way from Stephen... should be here in a day or two.

I have a Sank modded 260 which is fooking lovely. It's has almost no output, so you have to have a real pre, but get it going and it's great. Certain voices (like mine--mid baratone, with some gravel and a little peak at about 6k smoothes right out), guitar cabs, etc.

A tele-->cranked twin-->260DX-->GR MP2-NV sounds great. Big and detailed and rich yet smooth. Like a guitar is supposed to without having to bother with all kinds of doubling sillyness to get it "big" sounding.