Many people believe that Signal Art began with modifying the Warm Audio 47 and 87... not true. It actually began with the Sterling ST59 when I was still at the aforementioned company. When I first heard the ST59 almost a decade ago, I knew that this was a diamond in the rough. Despite the harsh top end, lacking bottom end, and shrillness, I knew that there was something really good there and that the capsule was suprisingly good. Over the years, I was able to track down the maker of that capsule, Mr Frank He, who makes 'only' that capsule pretty much, in both single sided and double sided form. Some of them are modified per the manufacturer's request with a disc resonator (as in the case of these); but otherwise they are all either a single or double sided K67 skinned with a 3 micron Mylar membrane. I was able to track down the part for spare, and I was able to deduce that the output transformer was a T8 transformer which I could also reverse engineer to be upgraded.
Once I had figured out how to tame the shrill top end by taking off that capsule's tuning baffle and re-terminating it, I found all the other components that benefitted from upgrading. Basically, all of the capacitors. Electrolytics were replaced with audio grade electrolytics, and the mica capacitor was replaced with an over-spec'd silver mica. The chassis was given a dedicated grounding rod, and my own custom wound T8 transformer was installed. A couple of years ago, I ran out of the custom wound T8 and reverted to using AMI's T8, which is the best in the business.
Because of the age of these mics (most of them have been in the field for 20-25 years), I found it getting more difficult to work on them without having to replace capsules and do trace repair on the boards; so I took them off of my website a couple of years ago. Still, the requests kept coming in by word of mouth. I kept taking them, but with the caveat that all orders had to be in by Dec 1 of this year because I was definitely done with them by the end of this year. Well; these 3 represent the final ones on the books... And a beautiful set they are. I am really happy that these 3 lovingly rebuilt ST59's will go into a good working studio and have a happy home, where they will hopefully continue to make records for many more years. I still believe that this mic was a diamond in the rough, and an incredibly smooth and musical studio workhorse mic. It's tube counterpart (the ST69) to me, once modified, sounds like a cross between a 67 and a C12 and I have called it the poor man's C12. The final ST69 is going on the bench as we speak. This solid state sibling is just like the more focused/firm sounding version of that mic.
Thanks to all who have supported us over the years and had us modify their Sterling ST55, 57, 59, 66, 67, and 69 mics (sorry if I'm missing some variants out there). We are winding down our 'upgrade' catalog, although we have one more in development to go which will be the final one (WA-C800G) and I think that will be the best one yet; although we are putting most of our energy into the upcoming SAE M49C+ which will hopefully see the light next year. It all started with this mic mod, and it was bittersweet to send the last three out today to their happy home.
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