Those are gorgeous, dude.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing some thinking and research. I came this close to pulling the trigger on getting the Shure 5575 Anniversary edition. That’s a lot of freakin money. So my mind started to think of alternatives. You can get an original Shure 55 ‘Fatboy’ just about anywhere and any condition. So I decided to go that route. On a side note, if I can get one not working, and for parts, I saw a great idea of making one into a desk lamp. I might have gone in that direction. But I did score a nice used one for $100.

I love the base stand and thought it was something they thought of for the anniversary. Actually the art deco base was very common for these microphones. I discovered you get the base too pretty easily. I scored one for $50.

I’ll have to do some minor clean-up and paint, but for a 1/3 of the cost I’m getting something that is fun, cool and makes me happy.

I’ll add pictures later.

This is a fun little hobby.

By the by, if the this works out nicely, I might look into refurbishing to original or the lamp idea. Cleaned up, these things double and triple in price.

Edit add:

I bought a stand like this (minus the black portion)... that needs a little clean up work. I've been noticing that some of the models have some very bright colored foam appearing through the slots of the microphone. I'm liking the red or cobalt blue. That will be my next part of the project to go after.



and then I bought the microphone Shure 55S Fatboy (used and some scratches) like this...



Yes, the anniversary edition looks awesome with the full chrome and bright foam and the slick stand. But $400?

and here is the 'desklamp' idea...

So here's my newly acquired Shure Super 55 'Fatboy', and the S-36 Base. I'm currently in the process of painting the base. The Microphone is in excellent condition. I went to the hobby store and went in the model building area where they had a nice assorment of acylic and lacquer paints. I decided to go with a Blue Pearl Lacquer. I need to finish it with a clear coat.

More pictures to come...

That really is a beautiful piece.

I played around a little with buffing the Turner 33D mic. A cloth buffer with rubbing compound did squat. I moved onto a wire brush. That did some cleaning up. I still have some bubbling pitting that won't budge. I think I'll do a little more. Try a fine metal sand paper. Still need to come up with a paint plan.

Should I even mention the other avenue like these projects I'm thinking about pursuing?

Think art deco fan 

FAILURE #1 & #2

groan... I had such high hopes.

Failure on two fronts. The first is the paint bleed onto the other color due to my negligence in proper masking. The other is the color combo. When I was envisioning this, for some reason the opposite color scheme seemed to work. A metal flake blue and a flat yellow.

Yuck... it looks horrible. So, I'm going to strip the paint and start over. I'm going to try to adjacent colors. Art Deco with Brown and tan. Cross the fingers...