Mic Testing

[milothicus]

My grandmother gave me a couple of old mics that i guess my grandfather had bought a a yard sale sometime within the last 30 or 40 years.

They're two ronette mics as described on this page:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~odemar/microphones/ronette-mics.htm

They're listed as "Ronette (unkown)" about 2/3 of the way down.

Knowing a fair bit about pickups and amplifiers, i don't know anything about these old mics, and what i should expect from them.

when i plug either one into my computer sound card, or into my modern bass amp, it doesn't seem to pick up much noise, but it does make sound when i tap the casing. there is obviously some signal coming out of it, but if i turn it up to a point where it starts to actually make a tiny bit of noise, it feeds back horribly.

is this normal when connecting an old microphone of unknown impedance to modern equipment? Am I missing something? or are both mics just dead?

[MWJB]

Never tried plugging an old, possibly crystal element, into a soundcard. Yes, I would imagine that into a typical, modern bass amp you will get little signal out before feedback sets in.

Neither mic is dead if you are getting noise when tapping and feedback. That doesn't guarantee good tone though, nor that they may have deteriorated over the years.

You're not going to get the ease of use you might with a lo-z SM58 or similar.

The normal channel of a tolex Fender, would be a better testing ground, keep the treble down (under "4") bass about halfway, middle (if available) anywhere from 6-10. Should get the volume up to 3-4 on a Super Reverb/Champ, maybe only up to the "2" mark on a Twin?

The only real way to test a mic like this for harp, is back to back with a known good mic, in a known good amp, by an experienced harp player. Harp players put in a lot of time & effort with regard to getting a good mic technique.