Over the years, I have upgraded many WA-251 mics to an authentic CK12 replica capusle made by various sources (Heiserman, OPR, Tim Campbell, MBHO Haun. and others). These always yield a tangible improvement but I have never offered these mods officially on the site due to the high cost. However, due to continious requests, I have decided to make the offer official on the site where you can now choose the stock capsule or an historic CK12 capsule upgrade to the OPR CK12 replica. These are not cheap; but they will bring the mic 'all the way there' in terms of getting it to true '251' standards. I recommend an authentic, chambered CK12 capsule for fully professional recording environments and particularly for percussion/drum recording where the transient decay of a true CK12 has far more linear phase response than the stock capsule. You can more easily get away with the stock capsule on the Warm if you are doing things where the transient peak to average ratio is lower, such as vocals, acoustic guitar, etc.
I unfortunately cannot offer a smorgasbord of different CK12's. We will either utilize the stock capsule (which is cleaned, re-seated, and re-terminated as part of the baseline mod cost), or upgrade to the OPR CK12 capsule on the WA-251 and WA-CX12. I don't offer any other options; but can install them for you at no cost if you provide the capsule when you send in the mod.
While we're on the subject of this, and I get asked this alot; I do not recommend putting in 'CK12-style' capsules that are offered by various websites that usually live between the $100 and $300 USD range. These are not true, chambered CK12's. They are merely edge-terminated K67 style capsules not much different from what is already in the Warm. Many of them in fact are considerably worse; and a few of them are just marginally better... but in my honest opinion, this is never worth the investment and you will be sadly disappointed to spend a few hundred dollars to replace one 'decent' edge terminated CK12 imitation capsule with another one, essentially not getting anywhere. In my opinion, what is in there already is decent enough for many applications and it only makes sense to commit to putting in a TRUE CK12 capsule for the most demanding (and percussion-centered) applications. A real CK12 capsule is not mass produced and cannot be had for anything under about $450 USD. If you see something selling for less than that, then chances are it is not a real CK12 and I recommend avoiding it. It's not that it is terrible; its just that it may make little to no improvement from what's there.
ReAmps winding down!
After doing a lot of end-of-year cleaning and reorganizing to the shop, I uncovered an unopened case of ReAmp chassis that I didn't know I had! Always pays to organize! haha So, we were down to 4 left, but now we will be down to 28, and I expect the ReAmps to finally, fully sell out by January or February after I make all of these. Please take advantage of this if you are considering getting one because once these are gone, they REALLY are gone. We only have 3 DI boxes left, btw, and they will also not be re-issued.
We are keeping the black friday sale going thru the end of year, and you can still use codes 'BFS50off!' on all mods/ReAmps/DI's and 'BFS400off!' on all handmade boutique mics thru the end of the year!
Thanks and have a great holiday! I will probably not post another blog until after NAMM, so have a great one and stay warm!
Chad