Well I've finally gone over the edge. Last weekend I found some plans for building your own ribbon mic and I'm all fired up to do it. Infact the electronics couldn't be simpler, the hardest part seems to be making a body/screen. (other then putting the ribbon in that is).

Has anyone stumbled on a place to buy empty mic bodies? I've looked everywhere.

I looked into using brass tubing. Also looked into rectangular aluminum tubing.

I'm actually considering buying the cheapest apex and just gutting it and making the motor from scratch.

Any ideas?

What do you think the cost will be to build the ribbon mic? Which one are you building?

Buying a cheap Chinese mic might be the best option. Otherwise, there was a guy in Austria at Prodigy-Pro who was selling fancy brass ones but they weren't cheap.

Ryan wrote:What do you think the cost will be to build the ribbon mic? Which one are you building?

I don't have the costs figured out yet but the transformer I'm using costs around $70 and magnets are a coupla a bucks each.

Really those are the big items other then the mic body grill assembly.

I just spent a an hour out at a giant metals wholesaler here in the valley. trying to come up with body ideas.

I bought the stuff to make the motor truss and so I'll do that first.

otisroom wrote:

Ryan wrote:What do you think the cost will be to build the ribbon mic? Which one are you building?

I don't have the costs figured out yet but the transformer I'm using costs around $70 and magnets are a coupla a bucks each.

what about the aluminum foil for the ribbon? that's another 50 bucks or so, no?

anyhow, sounds relatively cheap and awesome.
There's a guy at my work place who made a mic body for this old german mic he has, I can ask him where he did it.

I have a AKG D 12 mic that is fucked. but the body is still looking good. don't know if that would work for a ribbon mic. but it sure would look nice.

look on Ebay for old CB microphones. Some look really cool and they go for nothing.

eliya wrote:

otisroom wrote:

Ryan wrote:What do you think the cost will be to build the ribbon mic? Which one are you building?

I don't have the costs figured out yet but the transformer I'm using costs around $70 and magnets are a coupla a bucks each.

what about the aluminum foil for the ribbon? that's another 50 bucks or so, no?

anyhow, sounds relatively cheap and awesome.
There's a guy at my work place who made a mic body for this old german mic he has, I can ask him where he did it.

I'm going to try to roll my own ribbon out of silver(aluminum) leaf. I know it sounds crazy. But I'm a glutton for punishment and I used to make jewelry for a hobby so so I have some fine metalwork chops.

bassdriver wrote:I have a AKG D 12 mic that is fucked. but the body is still looking good. don't know if that would work for a ribbon mic. but it sure would look nice.

This is a great idea. I'm probably going to set up some ebay alerts for "broken mic" etc etc.

You want to sell that D12? Can't you get it fixed? that's a very nice mic.

Making a body that looks nice is going to be really hard. Unless you have your own metal lathe. The only problem with going the broken mic route is finding 2 to make a semi-matched pair.

japmn wrote:look on Ebay for old CB microphones. Some look really cool and they go for nothing.

This is another good idea. I'm going to start looking right now.