20th January 2009
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#1 | | Gear interested
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 26
Thread Starter | Neumann U47 - 60th Anniversary - Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday U47! The Neumann U47 officially debuted in 1949 and cost $ 390.-
Please post your U47 pics here to celebrate it's 60th birthday in 2009.
U47 pics with artists are also welcome!
I'd like to start with the southerntracks pic: Neumann U47 group photo  | 
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20th January 2009
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#2 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Oct 2007 Location: A quiet place
Posts: 1,071
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Happy Birthday!!!
No pictures from me. My Wagner doesn't get here until March. 
Always good to see us Atlantans show our gear.
__________________ AnalogTubes.com - Cutsom Tube Sets Guitar-Tubes.com Crank it up A studio is a financial black hole with good acoustics. It's only vintage if it works. Other wise it's just old crap. JS Bach or Beethoven never used auto-tune or comp tracks, nor an eq, a compressor/limiter, a reverb or a delay an analog or digital mix system. All that was achieved in the writing and performance of the music. Obviously Bach and Beethoven were doing it wrong. | |
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20th January 2009
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#3 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Nov 2007 Location: LA |
no pics here either  i never took em....love that mic to death..it sounds like heaven 
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(Chael) - Michael Thomas Candido-
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20th January 2009
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#4 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jun 2002 Location: Sydney Australia
Posts: 1,477
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That group photo is the ultimate porn.
An orgy of heaven.
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20th January 2009
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#5 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,247
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$390... good lord   | |
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20th January 2009
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#6 | | Gear interested
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 26
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by JPeters86  $390... good lord |
According to the "Neumann the history of The Condenser Microphones" article by Win Schwartau and David Smith it was very pricy at the time. You could have buy a decent motorcycle back then.
Quote:
When Telefunken was representing Neumann as a international distributor, the U.S. sales agency was American Elite, operating from a store front on Park Avenue and 34th Street, in New York City. One of their salesmen, Fred Cunow, was trying to sell a U47 to a tough customer, Stephen Temmer, then president of Gotham Recording. Temmer finally acquiesced in 1953 and purchased the overpriced U47 for $ 390.00. (The next highest priced microphone on the market was the RCA 77D at $ 135.00.) Temmer used this sole mike shortly thereafter to mix an entire orchestra and vocal group, The Ink Spols. A subsequent article by Temmer stated... "from now on we'll never need more than one microphone." | |
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20th January 2009
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#7 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 1,354
| Quote:
Originally Posted by JPeters86 $390... good lord | Adjust for inflation and that will be around $4000 today.
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20th January 2009
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#8 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Aug 2006 Location: Hyperspace
Posts: 1,115
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From the archives...
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20th January 2009
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#9 | | Guitar/Vox of Skyway Ave.
Joined: Oct 2008 Location: Bournemouth, UK
Posts: 1,345
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Love this mic to bits, only used it once, and it's had me saving ever since!!
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Musician, Amateur Mixer, Writer http://facebook.com/skywayavenuemusic My frozen dairy beverage bringeth all the gentlefolk to the yard, and they claim, "Surely, 'tis better than thine! Surely, 'tis better than thine!" I'd instruct you, though I must levy a fee. | |
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20th January 2009
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#10 | | Moderator
Joined: May 2004 Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 7,465
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Slutty pics.  | |
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20th January 2009
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#11 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,247
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sahiaman Adjust for inflation and that will be around $4000 today. | Yes I understand that, I was referring to the change in currency value, or whatever that is called
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Best wishes,
JPeters86
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21st January 2009
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#12 | | Gear Head
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 59
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Happy birthday U47! (Man we're definitely nuts )
Yesterday I tracked a vocalist with a U47w. I'm completely under it's spell.
We did a shoot out with the singer (3 Neumann U47's, a C12, a C12VR, a VM1 and a Leipzig Bottle CM 7151) they all sounded more or less great on his voice but the Wagner won.
I dunno what he does down under but he does it well. 
Those damn germans seem do have a mic gene. Quote:
Originally Posted by sahiaman Adjust for inflation and that will be around $4000 today. |
I doubt that... It's more like 40k... you can't simply do a percentage math.
You won't get a nice bike for 4k.
Maybe Swedien could chime in.
Nash 
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Nash | |
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21st January 2009
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#13 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2005 Location: Porto - Portugal
Posts: 723
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Gosh, when I saw the thread title I had this little hope you were announcing a 60th Anniversary re-issue...
Hey Neumann, too late for that?
(deep down I knew it would never happen )
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Zé Nuno
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21st January 2009
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#14 | | Ion wrangler
Joined: Feb 2008 Location: Boston
Posts: 742
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Unfortunately, this one doesn't belong to me, but rather to a little up and coming studio in North London. They have quite a few of them there, actually. 
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I've got a 1" 8 track and a dream. Check out my video of Abbey Road, studio 2 at: www.corinashley.com | |
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21st January 2009
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#15 | | Gear addict
Joined: Sep 2006 Location: Canada
Posts: 483
| Quote:
Originally Posted by brill bedroom Unfortunately, this one doesn't belong to me, but rather to a little up and coming studio in North London. They have quite a few of them there, actually. | | |
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21st January 2009
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#16 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jan 2004 Location: Berlin
Posts: 1,302
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sahiaman Adjust for inflation and that will be around $4000 today. | always depends on the index you're using Measuring Worth - Relative Value of US Dollars could also have been more.
it was definitely a lot of money back then!
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21st January 2009
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#17 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,247
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Keep them pics coming | |
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22nd January 2009
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#18 | | Gear maniac
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 203
| uh , yer two years or so late!!!
guys, I hate to burst the bubble, and I DO love a good 47, but they were designed in 1946 and began selling in 1947, not 1949!!!
stephan temmer once told me "any recording engineer who uses a U47 is obviously not a professional"
another favorite 47 quote: Im in a studio in the viennese opera house basement, buying 13 u47s for 325. each...the chief engineer comes into the office, and says " what do you want this old junk for?"
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22nd January 2009
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#19 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2005 Location: Montreal Qc
Posts: 1,781
| Quote:
Originally Posted by dan alexander guys
another favorite 47 quote: Im in a studio in the viennese opera house basement, buying 13 u47s for 325. each...the chief engineer comes into the office, and says " what do you want this old junk for?" | Dan do you know what year was that ?
Thank you
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22nd January 2009
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#20 | | Jr. Gear Slut 2nd class
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 2,299
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Thanks Dan for being so helpful at NAMM when I was test sing'n on the Telefunken USA repro's of the U47/C-12/251. All were superb!
Chris
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22nd January 2009
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#21 | | Gear Guru
Joined: Nov 2005 Location: S.Carolina
Posts: 12,238
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Does this count ? lol, I sold it almost 2 years ago.
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22nd January 2009
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#22 | | Gear Head
Joined: Jul 2007 Location: brooklyn
Posts: 72
| 47
HAPPY BORN DAY!!!!! now can u fix that power supply _ _ _ _ studios ?
__________________  console addiction
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22nd January 2009
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#23 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2006 Location: Inside the Outside
Posts: 1,195
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sahiaman Adjust for inflation and that will be around $4000 today. | Interestingly, US$390 in 1949 was equivalent to £195 Australian, and according to the RBA inflation calculator, at: RBA: Inflation Calculator
it is equivalent to AU$8555.63 in 2007 money (the RBA calculator stops at 2007).
Which, as it happens, is *very* close to the 2007 price of a Wagner U478w.
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22nd January 2009
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#24 | | Gear Head
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 59
| Quote:
Originally Posted by dan alexander guys, I hate to burst the bubble, and I DO love a good 47, but they were designed in 1946 and began selling in 1947, not 1949!!! |
Dan you're not correct.
I did a research 2 years ago...
I thought the the U47 was introduced in 1948 but I was wrong.
In June 1948 the first prototypes where inofficially introduced to some distributors etc.
1949 was Neumann's official introduction and start of sales.
Jim Webb sended me this in black and white.
That's why the 60th anniversary is correct. | |
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22nd January 2009
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#25 | | Gear Head
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 59
| Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSky Which, as it happens, is *very* close to the 2007 price of a Wagner U478w. |
mmm... I'm not sure... Wagner said that he works on a very low rate per hour to stay competitive. Keep in mind this is a one man show. If you take a look how much Telefunken USA charges for their mics the Wagner seems to available for a nice price. Although this sound ironic for some.
The Wagner actually would be more expensive if he would have a decent rate per hour.
If I take a look how much a nice bike cost the $ 390,- in 1953 is at least more than 10k.
Rather 15k... IMO
I sended Bruce Swedien a PM with the request to chime in.
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22nd January 2009
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#26 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2006 Location: Inside the Outside
Posts: 1,195
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Nashvillean mmm... I'm not sure... Wagner said that he works on a very low rate per hour to stay competitive... | Hi Nashvillean,
You seem to have taken it that I was suggesting that the Wagner is expensive - perhaps too expensive. My apologies, but that was not what I intended at all. If anything, the opposite.
The Wagner is basically hand made and each mic is a one-off. There is no production line going. That would have to be a more expensive process than the batch production that was going on in Germany in 1949. Plus parts in use are now rare and expensive, so for that reason also, it's not a 1:1 comparison.
If anything, I was impressed that when you take inflation out of the equation, Gunter is able to sell a hand-built re-creation of the original mic for 1949 prices! | |
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22nd January 2009
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#27 | | Gear Head
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 59
| Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkSky Hi Nashvillean,
You seem to have taken it that I was suggesting that the Wagner is expensive - perhaps too expensive. My apologies, but that was not what I intended at all. If anything, the opposite.
The Wagner is basically hand made and each mic is a one-off. There is no production line going. That would have to be a more expensive process than the batch production that was going on in Germany in 1949. Plus parts in use are now rare and expensive, so for that reason also, it's not a 1:1 comparison.
If anything, I was impressed that when you take inflation out of the equation, Gunter is able to sell a hand-built re-creation of the original mic for 1949 prices! |
DarkSky you're right... I drifted a bit off... Sorry.
- Back on topic!  | |
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22nd January 2009
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#28 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2005 Location: Israel
Posts: 1,044
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Happy birthday !!!
I've just bought a pair of KM54's as a birthday present for my U47 !!!
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24th January 2009
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#29 | | Gear maniac
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 203
| how about a date?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbone Dan do you know what year was that ?
Thank you | it would have been in 1979 i believe....my first european hunt...I think i scored about 130 mics in a month....oh , by the way, they also sold me a bag of about 25 nos vf14s for 5 dollars each....dan
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