I'm perhaps looking to get a couple of cheap-ish vocal mics and wondered if people had any experience with the T bone variety? More specifically I've been looking at the MB85 Beta (over the straight 85 simply because of the lack of switch!) I'm guessing through the name it's aiming to be kind of like the 58beta, but does anyone know how much this stands in practice?
I have used the £20 ish Behringers and while the quality was ok for what they were the handling noise was quite frankly awful, are the T bone's any better in this respect or should I probably just stop looking for cheap stuff, wait a bit more, spend more and get a couple of e845s? (I like them lots!)

Thanks,

Michael

Unfortunately I think you'll find, like most things, you get what you pay for. The T bone mics sound about as good as you'd expect for the price and tend to feedback a lot more because they are a lot less linear at high sound pressure levels so you can't easily eq for them like you could for, say, a shure sm58 or e845.
Then again, you could buy about 3 t bone mics for the price of one of those. If you want to do any professional gigs, I'd say don't waste the money, but if you're just buying them for a bit of fun go for the cheap ones.

Yup, Matt's spot on, you get what you pay for. For what it's worth we have sold a lot of cheap Behringer mics to schools, churches, charites etc and they seem happy enough with them for the price. If you must go this cheap it's worth having a play with the different mics to see which you prefer, some of the cheap Chinese imports sound really odd but you might find a gem that sounds like a 58 by pure chance!

If you're on a budget I'd go for used SM58s. OK, they might be tired but I'd rather have an old 58 than a new T.Bone. There are plenty to be had on eBay but watch out for the fakes being sold on eBay - lots of Shure, AKG, Sennheiser models are up at the moment.

Thanks, I'll probably save up for a couple of e845s then. It's not that I have to have cheap stuff, it was more me just trying to be cheap if it'd work! I've had quite positive experience of the T bone mics so far so was wondering whether this extended to vocals as well. But all things considered it's probably not worth it. I haven't got a problem with buying second hand stuff - but there's so many fakes floating around ebay and other places at the moment, while I'm sure there are good deals to be had it seems a bit risky. And I do much prefer the e845's over 58's any day!

I have a couple of the e825s, which IIRC are about £30-40, and Im really impressd by the sound for the price, better than my couple of 58s

I agree with all that's been said, I bought a T Bone bass drum mic and I haven't had any decent sound out of it yet, Shure's are cheap enough and my advice would be to save a bit more and go for those!

I'd rather have one of the "odd ones" than one that sounds like a 58.

You're not alone...

I'm looking for some cheapish mics, want 3 usable mics for around £100 to complete a rig so it can go out as a package for small gigs.

E845s would be nice, but they're a bit too much money. Anyone found anything decent in the rebrand market?

Ok, if I'm going to be picked up on it, read "some of the cheap Chinese imports sound really odd but you might find a gem that sounds like a {insert your microphone of choice} by pure chance!".

I think you're missing the point of the statement somewhat. What I was trying to say was that some random imports might sound great (a subjective opinion of course, I'm sure we will never all agree) whereas others that appear identical will in fact sound awful (subjectively). It really is of no relevance whatsoever what that subjective opinion is as long as you're happy with the product.

I shall attempt to be more unequivocal in future.

I quite like the Beyer TGX48 - a bit more than the '3 for 100', but I'm pleased with the sound - though this is very subjective. Years ago I bought an Audio Technica Pro4L, and I've always wished I had more of them - it's been superb. Don't think they're made any more.

Drifting OT slightly, but what bass drum mic did you get? I used a BD300 a while back and was pleasantly surprised - obviously nothing in the same leage as the D6 but I found it more than usable.

Like Jon something in the rebrand market would be good if there are any gems out there - even if it's just to know about for future reference. It seems studiospares do a couple of cheapish vocal mics but again I've not had any experience with them, they just came up in a search!

Check out the red 5 dynamic really quite acceptable for the price

I'd agree there are some gems out there. the thomann EM800s are not a dedicated vocal mic like you're looking for, but are an absolute gem! the same cant be said for their drum mics though. their CD55 tom mics keep losing their grilles, and just sound like crap.

Sorry if I'm appearing really indecisive here, but the red 5 vocal mics have caught my attention, and there was a fairly comprehensive review here that seems very positive. I haven't really seen them talked about anywhere else though so I'm still undecided. They seem to be doing a 2 for £50 offer on the RVD30's at the moment which I'm looking at - anyone else had any experience with these or any other thoughts?

A friend recently picked up some electrovoice co7's for a really good price and we both like the sound from them. I believe these worked out at £30 each in the end days of sound control. I hava feeling they were on offer and the RRP was slightly higher.

I picked up a case of 3 audio technica handhelds for around the £40 mark. Whilst they are nothing special at all, they do the job they are asked o do (general school handhelds).

My own spare mics are Yoga and are simply there to back up my stock of 58's. Again, nothing wrong with them apart from a slightly noisy switch operation.

As for second hand mics, I have to speak from personal experience and say that a major uk broker has recently been selling off lots of second hand 58's and I've heard bad things from a few people who've bought from them (or in my case, attempted to buy them, paid over the money and then waited for 6 weeks for the mics with zero communication from them). I've now got my money back, but wish I'd bought new in the first place.