| not too much danger
I didn't feel like making a huge mess and ruining a good pot, so I just heated the base of the mic with my cheap radio shack soldering iron. I held the side of the iron to the mic handle (unscrew it before heating) and after about 5 minutes or so (holding the piece between my shoes because it gets hot) I was able to pull the transformer and the surrounding glue out. I pulled hard enough that I ripped lose the wires to the XLR jack. you might want to desolder those first (and the ones to the capsule part, although I unsoldered those after unloosing the transformer and it was fine). to get the XLR connector loose you have to tighten the screw at the base of the mic. it's threaded backwards so lefty is tighty and righty is loosey, you want to go lefty tighty to put the screw all the way inwards and then slide the xlr jack out with some pliers (grab one of the pins). after all this you just need to solder two new wires, one from the + terminal of the capsule piece to PIN TWO of the XLR connector, and one from the - to PIN THREE of the XLR connector. (you'll need to have some raw wire handy, I used the same plastic coated wire I use to wire guitars, cut it to the proper length). then just screw it all back together and you're golden. pin one is already wired up to a piece of metal that touches the body of the mic for grounding
you might want to read a little about soldering to get the idea of how to do it, but it's really a very simple operation.
I haven't been totally floored by the modded mic but I've only tried it on a couple things... I think it will turn out to be useful once I find the right sources. |