What mic to pair with a modded CV4?

well a 251 is a c12 but with a few extra resisters to roll of the top end, so a c12 would be very close to what you have but not a matched pair.

certainly the too obvious recommendations would be max's mk-u47 and or his new 67, but there certainly are other high quality choices, the 47 and 67 have very good build threads and obviously Tony will be doing the 47 build here also with the psu included I guess ?

Shannon, correct me if I'm wrong on any of this...

The CV4 cap that Shannon sputters is center terminated, therefor more like a k67...and the guts of the CV4 were set up to sound more M49-ish...The original attempt was to get the CV4 to sound like Jeff's 251 (which in my estimation is a little darker than other's I've heard - not that that's a bad thing)...Of course, Shannon only had that 251 for a few days, so the whole thing has kind of morphed and taken on a life of it's own. With mine, Shannon tweaked until he thought it sounded great, then I would give feedback on where I wanted some freq range taken out/put in. He got mine where I was really happy, and Cowboy brought his U67 down and I did some comparisons (there's a thread on the site with files). Anyway, Shannon and I were both surprised by how closely the mic resembled that U67...So, the attempt was, "Lets tweak until we get this thing sounding fantastic to both of us..." Apparently, "sounding fantastic" approximates the sound of a great U67. Now, I think that U67 handled the top a little better and had a little thicker bottom, but imho, it didn't sound "better" enough for me to spend $7000 more for one. The mics that he did after mine had an even smoother top end (he developed a few more tweaks, but I didn't want to "fix" what wasn't broken)...I felt like they were even more towards the U67 vibe.

All that to say - I think you shouldn't rule out 251 and/or C12 builds. I know Shannon has started putting in edge terminated caps (CK12's) in the CV4 and it's really moving it more towards that 251 thing. Also, at one point Shannon even talked about maybe doing some sort of head system for the CV4...Wouldn't that be cool as shit...big project though.

Like we all know that the heavenly sounds are a matter of opinion and/or application. They all seem to have the ability to make our hair stand on end with chills, then others simply make us want to scratch our nutsack and ask who in the hell needs that with telling 10 others how it sucked.

What John and Tony said is correct. Johns was never meant to be or clone a U67, its was what complimented his voice. to our surprise it was very close to a u67 to say the least, as well as inspired a build for cowboy that was more open on the top. The traits of the 251 was a part of it not the tones, the smooth and transition. Each capsule have thier limits and traits that they shine.

I think a dialed in 251 would kick ass Ive done quite a many cv4-251 mods and a DIY build of a Chunger c12-251 kit that freggin rocked it. i know that some samples are going to be posted against a real 251 soon i believe .

If it were me, I would say to make a ribbon. Then, you have tonal choices, a fig 8 for mid/side recording with the CV-4 and something diverse from what you already have in your locker. If a ribbon isn't the right direction, at least grabbing a mic that will do different patterns keeps your options open for different tasks.

R

I think jeromemason just did a 251 build that Shannon did a special ck12 build for. Shannon said it sounded really good.