Shure Green Bullet Demo - Round Two

Some of the feedback that I received on the previous installment was quite interesting including: 

"It would be better if you didn't announce what mic you were playing and obscured them so bias couldn't enter in.

"If you hadn't said which was which I don't think many players could tell the difference."

"Joe is playing through a Tweed Champ clone. Like other small amps it adds a lot of its own breakup and color, which tends to make mics sound more alike...  Played through a bigger amp you will hear the differences more." 

"However to create a test to get people to choose which mic they think sounds best, or indeed to identify a particular element. The only real way to do that is to perform a blind test."

I decided to heed the advice that I was given.  

1. The second round is audio only.  That way, no one could see the microphones.  (You'll have to trust my honesty and integrity.)  
2. In this round, I used a Super Sonny.  It's a bigger amp.  There were no changes to the volume or tone settings when I changed microphones.
3. I set up a Zoom H2 about 15 feet away from the amp.
4. I tried to play the same thing each time and the same thing from the first test.

On with the fun.  The microphones being tested are a:

• Shure Controlled Magnetic (99A86) in a vintage JT-30 shell.
• Shure Controlled Magnetic (99A86) in a Hohner Blues Blaster shell.
• Shure 520D with a Mexican made element.
• Shure 520DX with the modern dynamic element.

Clip of Microphone #1

Clip of Microphone #2

Clip of Microphone #3

Clip of Microphone #4

What do you think?  Which microphone is which? 

Shure Green Bullet Demo

A while back, I was reading an Internet forum about the merits of a variety of microphones commonly used by harmonica players.  The microphone in question was the Shure Green Bullet.  Since, I had several of these microphones, I decided to pull out a few of them do some back to back testing.  I decided to run the various micrphones through my tweed Champ clone to eliminate tweaking of an amplifier's tone controls.

For this test, I plugged the microphone directly into the amplifier.  I set the volume control on the amp at six.  I ran the following microphones through the test:

1. A Shure controlled magnetic element (99A86) in a JT30 shell.
2. A Mexican-made Shure controlled magnetic element in a 520D shell
3. A modern dynamic Shure element in a 520DX shell.