This Neumann U47 Complete w/ Pelican Road Case is from the private collection of Ben Folds, used in 'Ben's Studio' which was the former RCA Studio A in Nashville, TN
SN: 4960. With power supply (SN: 2285) and all cabling. Ships in a heavy duty flight ready Pelican case dedicated for this microphone and this microphone alone. Also includes a voltage regulator.
"I mean, that's my baby for sure. That's the mic I used for, God, every vocal in this century that I did unless I was in someone's studio as a guest or something. That's my favorite mic. I love that one.
It's been kept well. There's this nutty guy who in Nashville, who's the man, who knows how to fix these things the best. He's got cats all running around in his basement and when you bring it to him, he just takes the mic out, because he's the only guy that I would let f*ck with this mic. And yeah, he just starts taking it apart and pretty soon it's like.. there's screws all next to his coffee cup and his newspaper and television set and the cats are all over and I have no idea how he gets his stuff back together, but he's the guy whose magic kept this mic working.
It was never powered on under my watch, under anything but a variac. It was a big thing to turn the mic back on, very careful with it. That and I handheld it when I went and did political rallies. The 47s do sound different. This 47 has what I would call, the reason the 47 exists in that it has loads of that mask. Real beautiful, three-dimensional, mid-range to it. That's the thing that I like out of it. And when I've been on other rented 47s they have that to varying degrees. But this one, this one does have a very three dimensional feel to it.
It does have a lot of top as well. It was really warm. I don't know, I just, I really love that mic. We did a song called Bitches Ain't Shit, a cover of a Dr. Dre song where we use that in omni somewhere near the piano. It got my voice, the piano and the drums. We just did everything mono through that one microphone for that session and then we had another little mic on the bass drum and I think the bass guitar went direct, but it was intended as a mono recording and we just moved the mic until it picked up enough of my voice and it sounds so close, but it was actually fairly far away.
So it's a really interesting mic. I remember my engineer saying, "Okay, and I'll put some other mics on things too so that we have that as a backup." I was like, "No, don't do that. We don't want a back up." - BF
All items in The Official Ben Folds Reverb Shop ship fully insured with delivery confirmation and include a signed and embossed Certificate Of Authenticity from Ben Folds
