RCA BK-5A

By really dumb luck, I happened to get my hands on an RCA BK-5A, a classic old ribbon microphone from about 1955.  A friend of mine had it stashed away in a closet for years and I told him I'd be happy to take it off his hands and get in working order again. It's in rough shape cosmetically and the ribbon is missing. From what I've heard about this mike it's going to be a great addition to the mike complement in my studio.  Here is a link to some information: RCA BK-5A.

I found a few places that do restorations on ribbon mikes.  They all seem to be pretty well regarded, but I decided to go with ENAK Microphone Repair. The guy there has apparently worked for RCA beginning about 1952, and has been doing high quality restorations for years.  I look forward to getting it back and trying it out on vocals and various instruments.  I'll put up some pictures of it in a later post, and perhaps some audio clips too.

RCA BK-5A before restoration.

RCA BK-5A before restoration.

RCA BK-5A before restoration. It looks like the ribbon is missing.