From eBay ugly to U47 beauty

[TTatman]

I recently won this eBay auction for a chopped up vintage Telefunken U47. TELEFUNKEN/NEUMANN U47 FET - eBay (item 120607917222 end time Aug-18-10 17:59:25 PDT) Apparently somebody converted it to a sort of U47 FET, but Oliver Archut at TAB-Funkenwerk said everything was still there to return it to its original glory. The original KK47 was in excellent condition, the grille was perfect, and with a little TLC from Oliver, the original BV8 transformer is now good as new. He rebuilt the amplifier, and installed a Telefunken glass tube. Throw in a new body and power supply and here it is:

Catamount Recording


[IMG]******//i55.tinypic.com/dmcf2c.jpg[/IMG]

[sedohr]

Originally Posted by TTatman

I recently won this eBay auction for a chopped up vintage Telefunken U47. TELEFUNKEN/NEUMANN U47 FET - eBay (item 120607917222 end time Aug-18-10 17:59:25 PDT) Apparently somebody converted it to a sort of U47 FET, but Oliver Archut at TAB-Funkenwerk said everything was still there to return it to its original glory. The original KK47 was in excellent condition, the grille was perfect, and with a little TLC from Oliver, the original BV8 transformer is now good as new. He rebuilt the amplifier, and installed a Telefunken glass tube. Throw in a new body and power supply and here it is:

Catamount Recording


[IMG]******//i55.tinypic.com/dmcf2c.jpg[/IMG]

Congratz! One hell of a catch! And a good price. Was it expensive after Oliver's TLC ?

Kalli

[Player1]

Great project! Very Nice studio too!

[TTatman]

Originally Posted by Player1

Great project! Very Nice studio too!

Thanks much. I thought Oliver's services were extremely reasonable. I could tell that rebuilding this mic was a labor of love. He could hardly wait to get started. He did it over the weekend as soon as he got it.

[DONNX]

I was thinking about bidding on that auction. Damm that was very fast work!! Bought it, got it fixed all in 3 weeks. I am impressed! The auction just ended and the seller is in mexico. You must know Oliver very well eh? I hear the guy is always busy and hard to get a hold of. Some say he is ill. I wish him a speedy recovery if so. I was thinking it was some early U47 telefunken FET. Thanks for confirmation that is was a modded 47 to be a FET. I also wanted that head basket and transformer.

Did Oliver rewound the transformer? What exactly did he do for the TLC you mentioned?

Did it come with the PSU? And long body? I see you have a long body now. And can't help but notice the head basket doesn't look chrome/shiny like the U47fet head grill. Did he refinished it? Or you put two U47s together to make one? Some guys like that flat finish more than the shiny chrome. Neumann supposedly made flat finished heads for television back in the days.

And lastly what happened to the old early pattern switch that the 47FET came with? Thats a very cool part. Its like the one I have on my mic and only very early U47s possess it. Clear transparent plastic piece with a black/white stripe background. The one on your fixed 47 is totally clear.

Regardlesss...Cool find and enjoy!

[arf]

You did great! It routinely takes a wait of year or two to get such attention from an expert of that calibre. I had some near mint M49s in with somone that I will not name and finally asked for them back after over year with nothing done. Looks like a lovey mic.

[TTatman]

Originally Posted by DONNX

I was thinking about bidding on that auction. Damm that was very fast work!! Bought it, got it fixed all in 3 weeks. I am impressed! The auction just ended and the seller is in mexico. You must know Oliver very well eh? I hear the guy is always busy and hard to get a hold of. Some say he is ill. I wish him a speedy recovery if so. I was thinking it was some early U47 telefunken FET. Thanks for confirmation that is was a modded 47 to be a FET. I also wanted that head basket and transformer.

Did Oliver rewound the transformer? What exactly did he do for the TLC you mentioned?

Did it come with the PSU? And long body? I see you have a long body now. And can't help but notice the head basket doesn't look chrome/shiny like the U47fet head grill. Did he refinished it? Or you put two U47s together to make one? Some guys like that flat finish more than the shiny chrome. Neumann supposedly made flat finished heads for television back in the days.

And lastly what happened to the old early pattern switch that the 47FET came with? Thats a very cool part. Its like the one I have on my mic and only very early U47s possess it. Clear transparent plastic piece with a black/white stripe background. The one on your fixed 47 is totally clear.

Regardlesss...Cool find and enjoy!

Actually, Oliver is a recent acquaintance. I contacted him to confirm that he had done the refurb on a UM57 I was considering. (He had, and it sounds great). In our conversation I mentioned that I was looking for a U47. He said that once in a while he finds a "disaster" mic and rehabs it. A couple of weeks later he eMailed the link for the U47 "FET" auction to me. The eBay transaction was perfect. (The seller even paid for 2nd day UPS from Mexico, and $3500 of insurance). I over-nighted the mic to Oliver. He did most of the work that same weekend and presto, a U47 is reborn. Slickest deal ever. Oliver was solid, and I hope do more business with him and Joe in the future.

The head basket is the original shiny chrome top. Oliver transferred the Telefunken logo and Neumann serial# plate to a new long-body. That's the original tube U47 pattern switch. PSU is a TAB-Funkenwerk. For now, I don't know what the "TLC" on the BV8 was.

[TTatman]

Originally Posted by arf

You did great! It routinely takes a wait of year or two to get such attention from an expert of that calibre. I had some near mint M49s in with somone that I will not name and finally asked for them back after over year with nothing done. Looks like a lovey mic.

Thanks. Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Did you ever find somebody to go over them for you?

[Serious Poo]

What a cool project, congrats on the results. That's pretty cool.

[energizer bunny]

Schweeeeet. Good for you, enjoy.

[7Hz]

Originally Posted by TTatman

I recently won this eBay auction for a chopped up vintage Telefunken U47. TELEFUNKEN/NEUMANN U47 FET - eBay (item 120607917222 end time Aug-18-10 17:59:25 PDT) Apparently somebody converted it to a sort of U47 FET, but Oliver Archut at TAB-Funkenwerk said everything was still there to return it to its original glory. The original KK47 was in excellent condition, the grille was perfect, and with a little TLC from Oliver, the original BV8 transformer is now good as new. He rebuilt the amplifier, and installed a Telefunken glass tube. Throw in a new body and power supply and here it is:

Catamount Recording


[IMG]******//i55.tinypic.com/dmcf2c.jpg[/IMG]

Let`s hope it will participate in creation of great music otherwise it is just a piece of metal.

[Jamie Mac]

Looks good!

Do you know anything about the origin of the body? Is it FLEA or...?

[Doc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by TTatman

He did most of the work that same weekend and presto, a U47 is reborn.

You should change the title to, "From ebay ugly to U47 beauty, IN A WEEKEND"

Oliver is a Master technician, and that looks masterful. I for one am glad to see one more FET 47 hack job die a fast and painful death at the hands of such a talented person.

Congrats!

[pongmaster]

cool! but in my opinion you have sent it to the wrong place - making a special circuitry for a glasstube is sooo dated with todays offerings and a big mistake
to the value of your microphone!

you'd better had it converted to the original circuit and take one of the amazing direct replacement vf14s fet/tube.
you could use a vf14 if wanted - or if you decide to sell it!
i mean you have the original transformer, capsule & headbasket, why not make
a real U47 out of it?!

all the best

[xj32]

Nice!

Any good before shots?

XJ

[TTatman]

Originally Posted by pongmaster

cool! but in my opinion you have sent it to the wrong place - making a special circuitry for a glasstube is sooo dated with todays offerings and a big mistake
to the value of your microphone!

you'd better had it converted to the original circuit and take one of the amazing direct replacement vf14s fet/tube.
you could use a vf14 if wanted - or if you decide to sell it!
i mean you have the original transformer, capsule & headbasket, why not make
a real U47 out of it?!

all the best

Hi, Pongmaster.

Thanks. Here's the reasoning on the glass tube:
From the TAB-Funkenwerk Website: "Oliver was able to call upon his select group of friends back in the Homeland. Dipl. Ing. R. Wohlleb, The Last Living Telefunken Tube Engineer, designer of several incredible audio tubes, part of the original design team for the AC-701....He knew of a glass Telefunken German-made tube...technically identical to, and after several tests we concluded very similar in sonic character to, the VF-14."

I was comfortable deferring to the judgement of Oliver and Mr. Wohlieb, but, as I mentioned earlier, if I run across a fair price on a legitimate, original VF-14M, I'll probably switch it.

[TTatman]

Originally Posted by xj32

Nice!

Any good before shots?

XJ

Here are the original eBay auction pics:

TELEFUNKEN/NEUMANN U47 FET - eBay (item 120607917222 end time Aug-18-10 17:59:25 PDT)

[DONNX]

Originally Posted by pongmaster

cool! but in my opinion you have sent it to the wrong place - making a special circuitry for a glasstube is sooo dated with todays offerings and a big mistake
to the value of your microphone!

you'd better had it converted to the original circuit and take one of the amazing direct replacement vf14s fet/tube.
you could use a vf14 if wanted - or if you decide to sell it!
i mean you have the original transformer, capsule & headbasket, why not make
a real U47 out of it?!

all the best

That is a valid point. I would have personally gone the full way if I had this mic. From being an owner of a Andreas Grosser VF14 ER and VF14 EF and comparing it to the T funk Original VF14. I can agree that those are some killer options for you mic. So far, everyone who owns one or heard them have been very happy.

[Space Station]

Deal? errr..am I missing something here? Nearly four thousand dollars for a BV8 a KK47 capsule and a head grill is an awful lot of money...because essentially that is all that was salvaged from that poor mis-treated pile of junk.

[carloff]

Originally Posted by TTatman

Hi, Pongmaster.

Thanks. Here's the reasoning on the glass tube:
From the TAB-Funkenwerk Website: "Oliver was able to call upon his select group of friends back in the Homeland. Dipl. Ing. R. Wohlleb, The Last Living Telefunken Tube Engineer, designer of several incredible audio tubes, part of the original design team for the AC-701....He knew of a glass Telefunken German-made tube...technically identical to, and after several tests we concluded very similar in sonic character to, the VF-14."

I was comfortable deferring to the judgement of Oliver and Mr. Wohlieb, but, as I mentioned earlier, if I run across a fair price on a legitimate, original VF-14M, I'll probably switch it.

I would prefer VF14 a well...If I would pay such a lot of money....Looks for the first look a lot as Blue remake.

[oliver archut]

Hello Guys,

Since my heart surgery I stopped taking on repair work, but I still try to take care of my old customers as good as I can. In Tom's case a couple of circumstances came together that made the project possible and easy for me to fit it into my current schedule.

After talking with him about a UM57 he bought that I did a couple of years back, he asked about how to get a hold of a good working U47 as most of the good ones sell without ever showing up in the regular market. Around the same time, the Fet converted 47 showed up on Ebay and I told him that this mic would be a perfect candidate for refurbishing. Given the fact that it was outside the US it was pretty much like placing a red or black bet on the roulette table. Changing it back was not the problem because all of the important parts are still there with exception of the VF14.

What to do about the VF question is philosophical, because dropping $2500 for a working one is in my view a worse bet then the roulette table! More VF14's have died in the last 10 years than ever before and more will follow because of its steel envelop so buying one is a short lived pleasure at best. Using any of the drop in replacements, NuVistor, Saturn, TFK or Andreas Grosser Transistor version is still not original.

Given the fact that the mic needed to be rebuild anyway it was the perfect candidate for a glass tube replacement, the only problem is the 14V filament voltage supply. But in the end the mic can be brought back to VF14 mode within half an hour, all what is needed is a VF14 and a different power x-former.

Fixing the mic was nothing more than a new body tube and three support ribs. When the mic showed up here on Friday I fixed the bottom bell and removed the low end filter of the GN8b changing it to a BV8. On Saturday we were running the first set of 25 CS-4 so throwing it in that assembly line saved a bunch of time. Burning in and testing was quite easy, the K47 is in a real good shape. The mic turned out beautiful and warms up the same way as a VF version. As mentioned before it can be easily returned to VF mode if a good one will cross Tom's way.
Where did the body tube come from? AMI! Recently Joe and I had produced a bunch of 47 body parts because we regularly get asked about where to find them. We also needed to create tooling for the internal structure of the CS-4 (Jeff Roberts and Latch Lake made the external CS-4 body parts) so we just made a bunch more for repair and do it yourself folks. Folks on our mailing list have seen these parts for a couple of weeks now and were offered introductory promotional pricing for being on our mailing list. Eventually, it will be a permanent page on our website but you can see the parts here: U47 Kits
This was a fun project for me and I'm glad that Tom has been happy with the results.
Best regards,

[plunderpot]

This is a beautiful story - I love things like this. Hope to make a similar journey someday.
Great work Oliver!
J

[jwh1192]

yes, great story ... oliver, good to hear you are feeling well ... i am still a very happy owner of V78M

cheers and happy miking

john

[Silvertone]

Thanks for that Oliver... as usual delivered with tact and diplomacy!

Still digging that M49 you built for me... one of the best mics I own!

[Piedpiper]

Originally Posted by 7Hz

Let`s hope it will participate in creation of great music otherwise it is just a piece of metal.

No fear there. Tom has a very nice studio, knows how to use it, and makes use of both on a daily basis.

[tubeaudiofan]

Originally Posted by Piedpiper

No fear there. Tom has a very nice studio, knows how to use it, and makes use of both on a daily basis.

+1 to that! Tom is the man in Iowa, lot's of analogue, lot's of good sounding music for many years. He deserves a great 47, and our cheers!