spud — Apr 08, 2009I Have it's older brother, the 990. GREAT mic for vocals and acoustic guitar but unable to handle anything like a guitar amp unfortunatly.
If you remember when I built my Isocab Howie, the recording I did of the room switching between amp and Isocab was done with the MXL on a boom stand about 6 feet in the air! I does NOT take high SPL's well at all.
Technically, the 990 and this mic are really not related except by brand. The 990 is what I would consider a small-diaphragm condenser mic (.75" diameter capsule). This 9090 is a large diaphragm condenser (1"). It shares a lot more with the V67, which would be a great deal at this price. Add in the fact that it offers two capsules, one bright and one warm (since it's Chinese, for our purposes, we'll relabel those as "bright" and "super bright")... and it's quite a good deal.
Since we have something like 50 mics in the studio, I'm really not looking for any more right now, but anyone who is, this is a pretty damn good deal.
You are correct, a small diaphragm condenser is not the mic for a guitar cab. It's a great mic for acoustic guitars, drum overheads, hand percussion, etc. But close up on a guitar cab, you're going to reach that 130dB threshold really quick. A pop filter might help, but then again, it might not, and the proximity effect on a small diaphragm condenser is not really as exciting as it is on an LD. The 9090, however, has a good 10dB margin over the 990... 140dB threshold... that's not bad. I put LD condensers like this right up on guitar cabs, or a foot or two back, fairly often, and though it's not as sweet as a ribbon or as general as a 57, it can be a very usable tone if you find the right spot.