Richard Kuschel (e-mail him) has found that the Gefell Neumann CMV 563 mic with M7 cardioid capsule and his Peavey 1600 board preamps work well on acoustic guitar. “The sound is bigger than life. I have two 563's and I find that the two mics are very close in sound. If I desire even more depth, I will use a Peavey VMP2 preamp, but I usually find myself having to roll off the bottom end.”

Kuschel’s favorite acoustic guitar combination is the 563 on the 12th fret position and a heavily modified UM57 on the lower bout. “That UM57 is unique as it has a capsule from a U47 in it and so is not typical of a UM57. The 563 and board preamp combination are not always right on voice, but for certain voices (generally male) it works well. I have also had very good results on voices with a U87 and the Peavey VMP2. This combination is a lot richer than the board preamps.”

For fiddles and flute Kuschel uses a Stephen Sank modified B&O. “Sank uses an RCA type ribbon in the B&O so the sound is quite dark. The high end can be tweaked later without getting shrill. I also do a lot of classical recording and one system that I use all the time is a pair of Neumann KM84's into a Symetrix 202 with the "Monte" mods.

Kuschel says he recently made a side by side comparison of his Symetrix and a Millennia Media. “In addition to the KM84's I also used a Sank modified B&O and an [E-V] RE20. The only difference I heard [this could be imagination as the test was not blind] was that the Millennia had a slightly smoother high end to it. Noise floors and gain were comparable. Would I say the Millennia was better? Yes, but would I buy one? I’d like to, but I have a lot of other things to buy first such as new AD/DA converters.”

Mike Rivers (e-mail him) chips in with a thought. “I don't have a huge selection, but one combination that's been a standout worth mentioning--for the few who might actually be recording this sort of thing--is the Beyer M160 into a Great River MP2 on old timey fiddle. Dan Kennedy’s Great River preamps have received a lot of attention over the last year or so.”

For those thinking about upgrading from dynamic to condenser mics, you need to know that plugging your old dynamic mic into a high quality preamp can make a world of difference. While evaluating the Jensen Dual 990, I dropped into a local club where local live sound mixer Craig Hopwood was setting up for a live reggae gig. The Jensen 990 preamps made the preamps in the small Yamaha live board sound, well, broken.

Summit DCL200

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