Shure 545 (Harmonica) Harp mic volume control mod

Shure 545 Harmonica harp mic volume control mod

The Harp player from Whitefern Mountain String Band had previously asked me to repair a Carbon Copy pedal. He came back to me in February this year asking me to look at modifying a Shure 545 microphone to include a volume control.

The 545 is an SM57-like dynamic mic that’s popular with harp/harmoncia players. It’s quite common for harmonica players to be interested in volume controls actually mounted on their mics, and these are commonly found on green bullet style mics (I believe!).

Since I know little of the world of harmonica, I sought the advice of American harp mic guru Greg Heumann at BlowsMeAway. Since it wouldn’t be possible to fit the control inside a normal 545 enclosure, I purchased one of Greg’s sexy red enclosures to fit the volume control. Greg offers a choice of high and low impedance controls along with quality Neutrik XLR connector or a screw-type connector. I fitted an unbalanced XLR with pin2 hot to run into the customer’s Carbon Copy pedal. I thoroughly recommend Greg’s products, they’re of great quality and combine anorak level enthusiasm with great mech engineering!

The mod was a long drawn out process involving the delicate removal of the mic internals and the replacement of the transformer and volume control inside a smaller enclosure, specially balanced for harp players. It was fun to be doing something different.

In the mod you can see I’ve fitted Greg’s Bulletizer to the mic – the actual mic has a grille something like an SM57. Don’t have a clue how the bulletizer changes the harmonica sound, but it looks funky!

Greg does do the mod himself for USA customers, but if you don’t fancy sending your mic to the states, do get in touch.

Way to go Rowan. Its a great mic. I’m getting good feedback from other band members and audiences. The buletizer helps create a nice solid tone. It creates an extra acoustic chamber – my mouth being the other one. You did a nice job for me. feedback from customer on Facebook