The Buchanan Hammer
Sure enjoyed the trip down memory lane with Kevin Curran’s story on the Electro-Voice 635A microphone.
I started in radio back in 1961 at WCCW in Traverse City, Mich., and I remember the day in 1966 when Dave Veldsma of Audio Distributors fame rolled into town with a basket of EV 635A microphones. Dave made the rounds to the various stations in T.C. and sold all but one.
Years later, EV salesman Greg Silsby came to town to demo the EV Sentry 100A speakers and brought a “squashed” EV 635A with him for show-and-tell. If I recall, Greg said that mic had been squished into the tar parking lot by an 18-wheeler on site at an NAB Show. He plugged it in and demonstrated that it still worked.
EV was then located in Buchanan, Mich., so we engineers in the state didn’t have far to go to hear the latest offers from EV.
Michael Bradford, CPBE, Broadcast/Audio Services, Jackson, Mich.
Son of 635A
Good piece about EV’s 635A. As Paul Harvey used to say, “The Rest of the Story” is about the “Son-of-635A.”
A few years after the EV masters gave us the 635A, they came up with an interesting, upgraded design for TV and radio field ops. It was the RE50. That great technical team took a 635A and placed it inside a rubberized tube for shock mounting, and put a foam and metal screen on top and, violà, the RE50.
If you were to unscrew the top windscreen, you’d discover a 635A body inside the tube. One basic design, two must-have mics.
Personally I favor the 635A, it’s lighter and with a windscreen, performs great. But generally, my field mic of choice for the last 50 years has been the RE55. There is no better choice.
Larry Barr
