Sennheiser MKH-40

Semi pro recording and production for 12 years, have a studio and a good collection of mics from the likes of Neumann, Sennheiser, AT, Josephson, AKG and Earthworks, preamps from Avalon, Universal Audio, Dav Electronics BG1 and Focusrite.

It may be expensive new (around ??1000), but you can pick them up for less than half price second hand when they appear, make sure you give it a listening test before you part with your cash though.

It's a cardioid small diaphragm condenser with a 10db pad and a low cut/hi pass filter at 80Hz.

A ruler flat frequency response means these reign supreme on acoustic instruments when you want accurate sound reproduction with the smoothest most detailed high end of any mic I've come across. The production tolerances are so tight that you get no problems matching two of these for stereo even if made years apart.

Have recorded acoustic guitars, drums, violins and cellos with fantastic results. Especially good with ensembles where you need quite a bit of distance between the mic and the source for the sound to build, mingle and balance out, these mics are super quiet so you can place them at distance and use a neutral preamp with high gain without any worry of noise.

If you're recording a quality acoustic instrument in a good sounding room and you want to hear the sound unadulterated as it it was in the room coming back at you over the monitors then you need to give this mic a try.