December 2011: Got Clara mics in stock!
September 1, 2011: Yikes - got called out on facebook by The Low Anthem (thanks Ben!), and now a sudden spike in interest. I do things in small batches, maybe five or six at a go, so there's a decent chance that there will have to be a waiting list. My apologies, this is not my day job, and I'll try to keep up.
August 2011: Funny how the goofy stuff is what people want. I built three of these Clara mics, mainly because it's just as easy to build a batch as it is to build just one. Then within a year or so all three got sold - and after the first sold the other two went pretty quick to people who'd worked with the guy who bought the first. Now there's a band touring with one of these front and center, so I'm bowing to the inevitable and building a fresh batch. I'm hoping to have them done by the end of September 2011. Price is $450USD plus shipping.
2009: First new microphone in something like 2 years, but I've been wanting to do a spiderweb type of mic for a while now. It's based around a Transsound TSB-2555A capsule, which is an electret large diaphragm. It's mounted in slice of 2" brass tubing, which is then suspended in the wooden frame with thin elastic string.
The connector is a Switchcraft tiny XLR, the same used by Shure for the Beta-98 microphone. Bulk of the electronics is in an external box, with just the FET and 1Gohm resistor connected directly to the capsule. So far this microphone has the same circuitry as the Alice microphone - see the Alice page for schematic.
The capsule mount is just short segments of vinyl tubing with slots cut to fit around the edge of the capsule.
The mic on the left with the smaller capsule just has a TSB-165A capsule, same as used in the Alice microphone.
I'm not expecting to have any of these available to sell - just too much work for my schedule these days.