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Wiring a telephone harmonica microphone

Posted by Gus Z. on August 14, 2013 at 1:53pm in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever

Hi! I need a bit of advice about a project. I'm making a homemade harmonica mic from a telephone speaker, according to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yeK0rRA6F0

My problem is the wiring of the speaker to the 1/4" jack cable. I have unwounded the jack, as seen in the picture below:

The speaker has two cables, one of them white and the other one brown.

Firstly, I connected the brown cable to the earth wire of the jack (the wire that's wrapped around) and the white cable to the signal wire of the jack.

When I tested it in the amp, it picked the signal but it was incredibly weak. I thought about switching the connections of the wire, but that didn't work. I should mention that the wires of the mic speaker are extremely flexible and don't twist very well with the jack wires (which are also larger). Does anyone know about such a problem? Should I solder the wires instead of just twisting them?

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Replies

  • DeltaglowBoy August 14, 2013 at 8:24pm

    Double check that you have indeed used the ear piece from the tele and not the mouth piece.

    Otherwise, I agree, soldier the connections .... it should work and they do sound excellent ... very retro.

    • Gus Z. > DeltaglowBoy August 15, 2013 at 4:31am

      It's the first time I'm making such a microphone. I used the mouthpiece, but seeing your comment made me wonder. Why not the mouthpiece (where you talk), but the earpiece instead? That's why it didn't work? Now that I got the ear piece, it has a green and a yellow wire. How do I connect these to the 1/4" jack?

      Also, damn cool bone mic Randy!

      • DeltaglowBoy > Gus Z. August 15, 2013 at 10:34am

        On the earpiece I used, one of the terminals seemed to touch the rest of the metal housing around it.

        I used it for the - (ground). The other +.

        I then used the mouth piece cover to finish off the mic. It has many more holes and is most like a real mic.

        Using the mouthpiece cover, however, is dependent on the diameter of the enclosure that you are using for the mic. My creation required the use of some JB Weld to anchor some bits of PVC components used to make everything fit together.

        I'll try and post a photo.

      • Randy S. Bretz > Gus Z. August 15, 2013 at 7:27am

        Doesn`t matter which wire goes where, just solder them to an input jack.  Yeah my element is the ear piece from a 1941 rotary telephone.      Here`s a few more of my bone-wood microphone creations.......http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/albums/custom-harmonica-mic-s

  • Reeds Taylor August 14, 2013 at 5:37pm

    Yip...solder then on.

  • Reeds Taylor August 14, 2013 at 5:36pm

     I make this with a dial phone transmitter element..and a old show head attachment. Sounds like a old school ribbon mic... sound.306113919?profile=original

  • Randy S. Bretz August 14, 2013 at 4:57pm

    I took the element out and stuck it into my own carved bone / wood housing      Mojobone Works - Harp Mic

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