Sennheiser MD421 U5

[wintermoon]

I found one of these in my parts box, it was given to me years ago by a friend that I helped sell her deceased partners guitar collection. I might have tested it back then but never used it in a band situation.
I was thinking of trying it on a gig micing my Vibrolux Reverb or maybe in conjunction w/ an SM57 but was wondering if it's best suited to studio/recording use.
Any opinions?

[pingu]

senn md421
i call it the ‘shaver mic’

quite a nice mic on a guitar cab
or tom toms ….

[DawgBone]

Make sure you carry a spare mic clip for that sennheiser or you're S.O.L if it breaks.

Used to be/kind of is an industry standard. Great mic for live vox or guitar cabs live or studio or on tom toms as pingu mentioned. A little spendy for bringing to bar gigs but worth a shot if you are looking for something different than a 57 or just to bolster it's sound. I kind of view mics like I do speakers. There usually isn't a radical difference, just a small flavor change but that can make the difference for a player.

[ccroft]

We used to have a couple on stage back in the 70's. They were considered to be very good at whatever our sound guy decided they were best suited for. So yeah... not just a studio mic. I never mic'd by amp so I don't know about that. Maybe they were on the congos?

[st.bede]

I love 421s, good at capturing what it is pointed at, and not the other stuff. The clip is problematic. Also it can deal with extreme sound levels. Adapt at live use.

I used to like using both that and 57 for recording. (And maybe a room mic). I was not trying to do a jazz thing then. Both of those mic’s like a juicy level: grit and burn. That was years ago, when I had a project/midi studio happening. (Early 2000s). If you do use two mic’s, you have to address potential phase issue.

(… as mentioned above, good at Congos, toms and percs like that… not so much cymbals… ).

[DawgBone]

Guys.....

"Congo" is a country in Africa.

"Conga" is a tall, largish hand drum.

"Bongos" are a pair of connected small hand drums.

[ccroft]

Guys.....

"Congo" is a country in Africa.

"Conga" is a tall, largish hand drum.

"Bongos" are a pair of connected small hand drums.

Thanks for that Dawg. It's the conga drum I was referring to, though we also had bongos, doumbeks, cuicas and some other home-made shit that may have been pointed at that Sennheiser. My apologies. I started it.

BTW: That odd-ball mic clip must be pretty robust. I don't recall any trouble with it in some 10 years of use. Maybe we just had good sound men.

[wintermoon]

They sound pretty good here....ok, so it's dubbed

[vernon]

Back in the day the Sennheiser 421 was our go to kick drum mic. Since it’s a dynamic rather than a condenser mic, we very seldom used it on vocals. I don’t remember using it on a guitar amp. (Recording studio context)

[st.bede]

Lol… whoops