The One That Bruce Let Get Away

For some unknown reason, I never did get my arse into gear to buy a harmonica microphone when I was deep into the music thang. Lately, something of that old fire's been returning and I've decided to re-acquire gear to replace the stuff I sold when I stupidly decided to leave music behind.

That's at least two buttock-related mentions in one paragraph. It's all about butts in chairs round these here parts.

After spending some time watching the harp-mike selling vibe on eBay, I stumbled across a devilish looking ashtray-like beastie of a mike. It called to my cupped hands, aching for my smoke-laden breath to fight its way through a Mississippi Saxophone and caress the element inside.

I don't smoke, but the red silk peeking out from behind the microphone's grill combined with the decent internals at a decent price. I was sold.

Here's the wild and crazy blurb from the eBay listing of this latest of my material acquisitions:

This Vintage Olson Microphone arrived in pretty bad condition a few weeks ago so the original green paint has been removed and the mic has been refinished in Black Hammertone.

The original Crystal element was DOA and has been replaced with a Hi-Z Shure 520DX Green Bullet element and transformer which was removed from a Shure 520DX. This element has Super Strong Output and plenty of Thick Gritty Chicago Tone. The Chrome Grille is in good condition but does show some blemishes. I've placed copper wire mesh behind it with a red silk backing to dress up the appearance.

This particular microphone was one of a pair that I recently received that were reportedly owned by Bruce Willis at one time, but I have no way to substantiate that!

The swivel-mount has been chopped from the microphone and a 1/4" jack has been placed in the bottom toward the back of the shell. The volume control has been added at the bottom of the mic and is slightly recessed in the bottom fin of the mic to keep it out of the way when playing.

Don't let this one get away!

From the Harp Mic Shop.