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[otek]

I recently read an article on the recording of The Mars Volta's recent album "De-loused in the Comatorium".

The article talks briefly about the Ocean Way rental equipment used on the recording, and an adjacent picture shows the drum kit in fully miked glory, with an odd-looking large-bodied mic next to it described as a "Neumann P-47". The mic looks like a large tube condenser with the capsule mounted in a teardrop-shaped enclosure on a tiny stalk above the mic's body.

Some rummaging through old back issues of Mix Magazine yielded another picture, taken at Ocean Way, describing the mic as a "U-47MP".

Can anyone tell me something about this mic? Why did they decide to use this odd housing for the capsule?

[Klaus Heyne]

The U47p was a standard U47 with first generation amp and transformer, issued around 1955, that had a bajonnet adaptor at the top where you normally would find the flat surface with  female blade connectors for the usual mic head to be fitted.

Instead, this bajonnet connector made it possible to use the pre-war CMV3 capsules, either the lollipop shape (M7) or the torpedo head shape (SD omni, after the war equipped with the first generation KM53 capsule)

This U47 P version was issued for two reasons.

It allowed owners of the older mics to use the pre-war capsule heads (still state of the art in 1955) on the new  U47 mic, and it allowed Neumann to get rid of the remaining stock of pre-war capsule heads.

I used to own such a mic with the M7 lollipop head-
Very different sound, due to the lack of body shadowing effect in the lollipop head, compared to the same capsule in the usual U47 basket . I recall it sounded very good.

Kind regards,