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drBill · 28th February 2007

If you've ever had RF or grounding problems, you need to read this.

I bought 9 used Gefell's about 6 months ago and have had intermittant strange grounding and RF noise with them. Out of the 9 mics, (UM70's, M71S's, 692/M70's), 8 of them were problematic, and strangely enough 1 was always OK. AND ONLY IN MY STUDIO. Everywhere else they were OK. All my other condensers and dynamics are fine at my studio. (Neumann, AKG, Shure, Audix, EV, Sennheiser, etc.)

I tried everything. Got many suggestions here. None worked out They still made the noise - and intermittent to make things worse. I talked with Jim Williams and he told me that they were junk and told me to off them on ebay. I didn't want to give up on them yet, so I kept hunting. I don't want to get into all the details about what I tried right now, but a search would give you the background.

Anyway, I talked with a scoring engineer buddy of mine and he did some research for me and talked to a guy that made "pigtail fixes" for gefell's.

Basically, on the F XLR that plugs into the mic, you remove the shield (Pin 1) and tie it to the little loop on the chassis of the plug at the top. (Switchcraft style) I tried it and was amazed. It dropped the noise floor into the basement. It made the mics useable again. Needless to say...I am one happy camper.

File that away in case you ever have a problem with your Gefells at another studio. Well worth soldering up a few pigtails just in case.

Thanks Bobby!

28th February 2007	#1
drBill Gear Guru Joined: Jul 2006 Location: So Cal Posts: 11,491 Thread Starter	Gefell Owners/Users - What you need to know.... If you've ever had RF or grounding problems, you need to read this. I bought 9 used Gefell's about 6 months ago and have had intermittant strange grounding and RF noise with them. Out of the 9 mics, (UM70's, M71S's, 692/M70's), 8 of them were problematic, and strangely enough 1 was always OK. AND ONLY IN MY STUDIO. Everywhere else they were OK. All my other condensers and dynamics are fine at my studio. (Neumann, AKG, Shure, Audix, EV, Sennheiser, etc.) I tried everything. Got many suggestions here. None worked out They still made the noise - and intermittent to make things worse. I talked with Jim Williams and he told me that they were junk and told me to off them on ebay. I didn't want to give up on them yet, so I kept hunting. I don't want to get into all the details about what I tried right now, but a search would give you the background. Anyway, I talked with a scoring engineer buddy of mine and he did some research for me and talked to a guy that made "pigtail fixes" for gefell's. Basically, on the F XLR that plugs into the mic, you remove the shield (Pin 1) and tie it to the little loop on the chassis of the plug at the top. (Switchcraft style) I tried it and was amazed. It dropped the noise floor into the basement. It made the mics useable again. Needless to say...I am one happy camper. File that away in case you ever have a problem with your Gefells at another studio. Well worth soldering up a few pigtails just in case. Thanks Bobby!