251 style Microphone-Male/Female voices-Equally suited?

Well, when I was in the recording side of this business the first mic I'd grab for a female was an ELA 251. If it were a male I'd grab an M49 or a U47. The thing you want with the girls is that air and some body, the ELA 251 (good ones) have a lot of low mid body and a very silky smooth top end.

With the guys, you want a mic that really grabs the "bucket" or as I've heard it "the growl in the vowel" The M49 and U47 do that extremely well, and so does the 251, but under compression to really pull the bucket out, the M49 or U47 just reacts better.

So, I would say as well that the 251 is more suited for females, or in my opinion, it would be the mic I grabbed first for a female, not so much a male, but it really depends on the vocal, sometimes they're perfect for the guy or sometimes you might need a U87 or U67. This is why I would suggest to anyone just opening up shop to buy 8 good clones rather than 1 expensive real deal.

Well they're basically the same circuit and are the same capsule, the ELA 250/1 go cathode biased that I imagine was meant to be something easier but turned the C12 into a beast with the same silky top but a beefier lower mid. C12's are not my favorite on vocals honestly, but damn anytime I get a session that has "OHC12" or of the nature on it, damn they just are magic on overheads, make the whole drum kit sound "real" C12's are also totally amazing on Yamaha C5 or any great grand piano for that matter.

It has everything to do with the source and the genre of music. It’s hugely popular on female voices. You do hear male vocalist on it as well. Funny enough, it’s very popular in the Classical Crossover genre on tenor vocalist; Andrea Bocelli, The Canadian Tenors, Il Divo, etc have all used it. Bocelli uses a 251 a lot, alternating between it and a Brauner, with the occasional U47 on his opera recordings. While I’m a huge fan of the M49 on my voice, in a modern crossover piece which is usually heavily layered with full orchestra, pad, drums, effects etc, the M49 can be a little thick. In that case a 251 would do well to cut through a mix. It’s one of the reasons I’m going to be demoing a Bock 251 soon. That and my wife did a recording on a Korby Kat 251 a while back, so I already know she’ll sound great on it.  

Yeah, a lot of guys can have some "honk" on their voice and while the 251 doesn't exactly exaggerate this, it doesn't help IMO. M49 and U47 really help in this case, and yes, while being thick, when you're a mixing guy like me, it's similar to a mastering engineer wanting us to leave or exaggerate the top end and low end so they can sculpt that, same deal, I'd much rather get a vocal that's too thick on the material but also is forgiving in the "honk" area so I can use my tools (multi band comp/eq) to sculpt the vocal to fit. However, if I'm given a vocal with "honk" it's incredibly hard to remove that, or at least get rid of it's footprints. So, if your voice has that 2k-5k bump when you're in your head voice, you would probably want to look at the M49/U47/U67 styles. If you've got a voice that is similar to Josh Turner, a 251 will make you sound great, big open and airy.

Funny enough I’ve seen a bunch of photos of Thurl Ravenscroft in the studio on an ELA M 251. He’s the bass that originally brought us the Christmas classic “You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch.” Not sure if he used it on that song, but I know he used that mic regularly enough that it crept into a bunch of his in the studio photos.

Ooh. Maybe he did use it on that recording. 

thisblksistaspage.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/christmas-songs-youre-a-mean-one-mr-grinch-from-how-the-grinch-stole-christmas-thurl-ravenscroft-1966/

What surprised me with the Bock 251 is the depth of the low end.
The output transformer is much bigger than anything else I’ve seen in a condenser mic.

One of my best friends has a voice like Thurl’s.  He’s even sung the Grinch song on National TV because of it.  It’s an incredible instrument to hear. Been itching to get my buddy in here to record. Looking at what was done with Thurl gives me a few pointers. 

Off topic, here is my buddy Adam. He’s currently finishing his tour with the Army Choir as a soloist. He is basically the bass section on my recording of “Be My Love.”