The UCM Advantage
The UCM Chassis
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Most of the low-cost microphones on the market are made in China and share many construction details. The Universal Chinese Mic. The body is typically a sleeve held on by a screw-on base cap. The base screws onto a cast zinc piece which holds the XLR male connector. The top is another casting which holds the screens of the head basket. Inside are a pair of thin steel rails attached to the bottom casting and a round steel plate which holds the capsule and to which the head basket is attached with small screws.
We can take advantage of that universal construction to mix and match parts when building custom microphones.
Most of the low-cost microphones on the market are made in China and share many construction details.
We call it the
Universal Chinese Microphone.
A Microphone-Parts.com Linear-87 circuit board and custom output transformer intended to fit a CAD GXL3000 mic body (above) can be
installed in a $40 “K5000” karaoke mic chassis (right) along with an RK-47 capsule. Serious upgrade, or to look at it from the other perspective, cheap chassis for a fine mic.
Some other UCMs:
MXL 992
“K700” chassis with M-P V-57 circuit boards and RK-87 capsule.
Another “K5000” with RK-12 capsule and DIY electronics.
A bare “K5000” chassis
A couple of boxes.
You can find the cheap mics by searching eBay for “K5000 microphone” or “E1000 microphone” and then looking at the seller’s other mics. Or perhaps you have a Chinese mic from CAD or MXL which could stand a heart transplant. There’s a good chance that an upgrade kit intended for some other mic can be made to fit.
