Shure 55 SH

I agree. I bought the 55 and was less than impressed time 1,000. The mic looks very nice though. I, as well, but an sm 58 cardriod into the 55 and now we are talkin. Now this mic is prolly one of my fav.

yea whatever! I have no clue what these people are talking about. the sound quality od a r115 element in the 55sh is medioker at best, the feeb back sucks and harmonicas about the only thing worth doing in them. they are the whole reason I started my business of putting sm58's and beats inside them, and vinatge mics. I sell just the cartridges to upgrade you mic also. and have a warranty. there are people that may just implant one, but take my word for it, the handle of a 58 and beta are resinating chambers, and with them it effects the sound. My design has been to shure Inc. and they thought it to be an awesome hybrid. if you would like to see some check out my website. www.mutantmics.com

UPDATE TO THE LAST REVIEW.

In using the mic at another gig. You really dont have to get that close to it as I mentioned. I cranked the volume a bit. It is really sweet. Screw the looks thing, I love the mic for harmonica and vocals.

I've played for years. Solo guitar, harmonica, and vocals.

I'll be brief here or try to. When the mic came I set up my set up and rotated between this mic, a 58, 57, and a Shure condenser mic. Doing a test sentence blah blah with each. My main mic is the 58 of course. You do have to speak, yell whatever you do directly into the center of it with your lips touching it I found anyways. When you move away it drops off. You get nothing from the sides or back. It came down to the 55 and the 58. The 55 to me has a bit more depth sounding. Not earthshaking but just a bit different than the 58 to be interesting. The only issue if found was S's were very sharp. Sharp enough I was going to stay with my 58 and send it back. I put the windscreen from my 58 in front of it and all was fine. Now what? Put a big black sock over a nice retro mic. Don't think so. I carefully removed the four screws with a jewelers screwdriver and cut the windscreen from my regular mic in half depth and put it over the element and put it back together. End of story. I used it live and liked it a lot. Have to admit I like the retro looks and I'm not into looks. For harmonica it was very responsive and easy to play into.

This is an update to the previous review i submitted just below this one....

Just as an FYI, i made another change to this mic that i am really happy with and GREATLY improved the sound of the mic. this is for those of you who want a better sound out of this mic and are down to spend a little time and money. i bought a shure beta58, which is my favorite live mic. it's a supercarioid mic which makes it very sensitive and has a high output, which makes it very colorful, dynamic, and clear. i took the cartridge out of the mic handle as well as the transformer and xlr jack and installed it into the 55sh. how, the mic operates just like a beta58 and sounds amazing!

along with this, i also still run it through the joemeek british channel and the TC Electronics M-One to give it some really amazing flavor.

if you have any questions on how to "operate" on the mic, just email me. this also works if you use SM58s or Beta87A condenser mics (i've done the SM58 and a guy i know has done the B87As). just as an FYI, the innards of the original 55sh are SM48, pretty low quality mics, far inferior to SM57s and SM58s and WAY inferior to Beta 58s and 87As, so any upgrade of this mic is worth it.

i bought this mic almost 10 years ago. used it a lot when i cared more about looks than sound. since then i've been using shure beta 58's a lot and love the sound of them for live vocals. much cleaner and punchier and fuller than the 55sh.

however, because i was tired of it being a paper weight on my desk for the past 4 or 5 years, i decided to try to revitalize it. i bought a joemeek british channel preamp to see if it could liven up the somewhat dull sound of the 55sh. to my pleasure, i've been able to give it a huge, full, but clear and clean punchy sound to it that i am so happy with. the joemeek has a preamp, a compressor and an EQ section. between mainly the preamp and the EQ, it did wonders for this mic, and the compressor is a really great sounding compressor that adds icing to the cake. i also bought a TC Electronic M One XL for effects, its a great unit with lush reverbs, clear delays, and other great goodies.

so, im proud to say that my 55sh has been recommisioned, and i highly recommend looking into a preamp if you want to take your 55sh sonically to the quality and level that it already has in its looks.

I love this mic. It isn't just for the sweet looks, but it sounds great. The midrange heaviness can easily be solved with the eq on a pa. I haven't used it live, yet, but I have used it at practice. We are incredibly loud, and I could turn the volume up high enough to hear myself without a monitor, and get very little feedback, but keep in mind that our speakers are set up in a horrible pattern, so feedback is hard to avoid. I play guitar, and use the mic on a standard chrome stand, set up so the top of the mic is even with the bottom of my nose, and sing about 2-3 inches away. I haven't recorded with it, yet, but when I do, I'll be back to write another review.

Peace Out!

Alt. Rock (for lack of better description) Vocalist w/ 10 yrs exp.

I have to agree with most of what the previous reviewer said. I've had this mic for about a decade now. It's the 1st and only mic I've ever used for live vocals. Along w/ the chrome stand that it has become permanently stuck to, this thing is my sole prop on stage. I got it because I loved the classic look, but it has proved itself as a reliable mic w/ a good clear sound.

Since I don't play guitar, I handle this thing a lot while performing. This was innitially a problem as I was constantly turning the mic off without realizing it, so our engineer at the time disabled the switch. That has worked out great, and I recomend that you get someone to do that for you, if think you'll be handling the mic a lot, as the switch is pretty loose. The only problem w/ this is that it will eliminate your ability to control feedback at the source, by simply switching the mic off.

As the previous reviewer noted, this mic probably feeds back a little easier than the SM58, and probably does a better job of accentuating the midrange frequencies. Since I like to have a deeper/darker tone to my voice, however, this has been a good thing. I consider myself a sort of rock crooner, like Jim Morrison, so I use a lot of dynamics, going from smooth clear vocals, to belting out howls of madness. Altogether, it could be said that I do project fairly well though, which may be important to why I like this mic, as the previous reviewer noted.

The only problem I've had with this mic is that after years of abuse (pounding it on stage, etc.), I had lost 3 of the 4 tiny screws that hold the face plate on. If I had gotten myself a tiny screwdriver (like you'd use on a pair of glasses), and regualarly tightened them, I'm sure I wouldn't have lost them. Anyway, I spent a little time trying to find suitable replacement screws at the hardware store, and was unable to. Finally, I called Shure customer service, where a nice lady told me that while the screws normally cost $8 for the set of 4, she would send them to me for free, despite the fact that my warrantee had expired years before. I recieved the screws a few days later, and have been taking better care of them since. This experience also deepened my loyalty to Shure, and I now own 4 other Shure mics, all of which I love.

I've been a professional musician since '78. I use this mic for live vocals (Crown CE1000, Roland VM-7200 and Yamaha Club IV speakers).

This is a dynamic cardoid vocal mic. Everybody's seen this mic... it's the big chrome one thet use in any movie about the 40s, 50s or 60s... looks cool, but the output's a little low and the sound is somewhat midrange heavy. I love having a big ol' target to sing into with this mic but I wish they'd make another version with a more sensitive capsule. I'd only suggest this mic to someone with good vocal projection or someone who works in an environment where you can be cranked without excessive feeding back. A good preamp works wonders with this mic too, just scoop the mids to add some clarity and punch.