MXL 2003a

Shure KSM32 is a solid mic, inexpensive used, and pretty popular for guitar cabs.

After much debate and testing, I've parked a UM70S and R121 in front of my cabinet. Those cover everything I need from a guitar and bass.

Yeah.....i can clearly see myself go buy 4x UM70S at 1800.00$/ea. and park them on cabinets.

Maybe i should be an electrical engineer. A-Ha!!!

I already have 57s and ribbons on them. All i need are decent LCDs than from the console pick whatever mic/amp i like that day.

Looks like i'll give an 2003a a try and if i don't like it i'll go AT and be done with it. I'm just curious about that lil' 2003a.

Yeah, it was an investment, as are all my mics these days.  I can always use it on other things like voices and drum room mic, etc.  I sold most of my other mics except for about 10 really good mics, most of which have specific uses which they are best suited for.

If I had it to do all over again, I would have just saved more money and bought good mics to begin with and saved so much time and anxiety instead of relentlessly trying to make cheap mics work through mods and determination.  I'll give you the answer to the question:  They never live up to your expectation no matter how much effort you put it.  As the cliche' goes, you can buy a 125K Ferrari, or you can put 125K of work into an Accord and it'll still never be a Ferrari.

That's why the big boys always use the same handful of good mics for most things, with the odd exception for the SM57 here and there.  Never once have I seen an Audio Technica mic in a for-profit studio.  Decent mics, decent tone, but they are no Neumann or Gefell.

Honestly, the R121 is the master of all things related to guitars.  Set it around 8" back from the center of the cone, 45deg angle, top of the mic even with the top of the dust cap, and BOOM. Guitar sound without any fuss.  If someone tells you they can't make the R121 work on guitars (And I've read sob stories on GS about it) then they are doing something seriously wrong, probably with placement or the amp settings.

I know it's expensive, but what it has saved me in time has more than paid for itself.  I used to spend an hour plus moving SM57's around the speakers while tweaking amps while the guitarist stands there complaining about the tone.  Now, I just plop the R121 down move it to the position mentioned above and get to recording.  Nobody complains anymore.

And for Mr. Joly, his mods were created long ago by others on other DIY sites for personal use only and has turned other people's work into his own little profitable industry.  He gets no respect from me.  He doesn't really sell you anything you can't get from simply putting that extra money into another, better, mic.  What he does sell is a feeling of accomplishment that people get from "cheating" the system by making something cheap "outperform" something more expensive for roughly the same money.  

I just remember the SP C1..  the "just like a U87 for only 200$!!!!" mic.  Nope.  Nothing like a U87 and barely worth the effort to try it out.

Of course it's relevant.  I'm saying that the professional reviews on the SP C1 were exactly the same as what you say above..  "realism, superior, accurate, honest" and all that.  The reviews of those on forums was almost as eager to please, but it turned out that it was a lot of "me too" going on until the next "big thing" came out, then all of a sudden C1's flooded the used market..  In fact, I bought the first C1 in my state.  I had it special ordered the day of the release based on the pre-reviews of the time.

So forgive me for not taking the word of the internet marketing machine anymore, but I've been bitten a few too many times to take any of these types of "miracle product" things seriously, and yes that includes purchasing a few SP products in my naive hopes that they lived up to the hype.  Maybe their new stuff is great as you say, and you're right, I don't know, but I'm not going back anytime soon unless I find a need that something like this might fill, then I might give it a try.

and an honest question..  you seem very eager to defend them..  do you work for Studio Projects or an affiliate?

Actually, this is what he said in his original post, that I replied to..

"I need a few LDC to "park" on guitar amps here. What do you guys suggest?"

While in your attempt to "catch" me being a dick, you overlooked the facts.  Nothing in the original post said anything about price or quantity.

That's cool.  I don't want to buy either Kia or Hyundai.  True, their offerings are getting better, but still not my cup of tea, and I would still test drive one before buying one.  With internet hype and internet sales, it's pretty impossible to test drive mics and things without buying them.  Once you do that, used resale for something like SP mics is probably 50% of the retail price, thus buying to "test" is a losing proposition.  Kinda apples and oranges analogy you are trying to use there.

And I could tell by how hard you attacked me for my opinion that some kind of protection instinct must have been kicking in, thus my belief you were somehow related to SP.

And if Mr. Casey is upset that a single person on the internet has had problems with quality of his past offerings then he needs thicker skin, as do you.  But, you defend so vigorously, I have to think it might be a recurring theme or something.. 

If you want me to be a believer, then make me believe, but I'm still not buying the buzzwords, marketing hype and heavily compressed youtube videos. 

So send me a loaner and I'll use it on my next studio session next to some of my other mics, namely Gefell M930 and Um70S, C12, etc.  If it impresses me as much as you say it will, I'll apologize and buy one.

Says the guy bashing me because I don't share his point of view.  Sheesh.  Pots and kettles.

If OP wants to try SP products, that's fine.  I just wanted to say that I wish I had just saved my money and gotten something better earlier on and I wouldn't have wasted so much in "upgrading" over the years and early SP products screwed me out of money I could have used for better things.  Maybe it's better now, but my point is still valid.  Caveat emptor. 

And no, sarcasm doesn't translate well through reading text on a forum.

Well that was fun wasn't it!?!?!?!?!

Maybe i don't want to become an electrical engineer after all

Looks like i'll do my own test and make a decision after that.

Thanks for the help, thatks for the laughters.