the t.bone RB 500 4-stars Reviews

can't get much better for the price

it's pointless comparing the t.bone rb500 to ribbon mics 10x its price. it's a great entry mic into the world of ribbon mics. the case with that cable hanging out the whole time is not really handy, could use some improvement there. the sound is a bit dark, so be careful about the room choice and the placement while recording. other than that like said, for the price you surely won't get anything better. this mic will definitely see more use in my studio.

Amazing Sound

I use this as a drum overhead. Such a full warm sound. Will definitely be buying a second one.

well... a ribbon for this price range

if you don't exactly know how a ribbon mic should behave... well get one of these. For this price range you just can't go wrong! it's quite applicable for many things, but dont expect miracles without a bit of EQing

Sleeper mic, these belong in your locker

Unbelievable how useful this mic is. I have access to two of them. They make great drum overheads or room mics. I've also experimented with them on vocals, and guitar cab with an sm57. They also make a fantastic kick out mic about two feet from the hole. So subby.

The fact that a 100 euro ribbon mic is this usable is insane. You will definitely find uses for these in your studio. For people running a budget studios that have different projects coming and going, selection is so important. Having one expensive mic isn't much good to you if you need to get different sounds. But having a large diaphram condenser, a budget pair of ribbons, sdc's and some dynamic mics will mean that you can actually choose how you mic things and play with the sound in this way. While I don't use these ribbons all the time, when I want them, they are so valuable to have. And SOOO affordable.

Great drum overheads

I use a pair of these as drum overheads and I’m very happy with them. The snare and toms sound full and punchy while the cymbals are present but not harsh. Overall a great budget mic

I love the sound, but the stock transformer was noisy

I mainly use it for acoustic guitar. The strumming parts are very usable, but for picking it's just too noisy. On all the tracks there was a very audible background hiss.

I ordered a Lundahl LL2915 ribbon mic transformer. After a couple hours of soldering and a couple of burnt fingers the noise is gone and it sounds divine. Not sure if it was the tranny or the sloppy soldering. Can't say that my own soldering is top notch either. Pretty sure the warranty is void now :)

BTW the LL2915 was to big to fit inside the original tranny shield. I bet LL2912 would fit though. If a mu metal core is a must I recommend LL2914 or a different shielded tranny.

Warm vintage sound

The tbone RB500 is an excellent introduction to ribbon mics specially considering the price.

I have been using a pair as overhead mics and have also recorded some acoustic and electric guitars. Just plug the mic and the warm vintage sound is right there out of the box.

Downsides: the attached XLR and clamp sometimes make it difficult to tilt the mic at certain angles. Also being a ribbon mic, make sure you have good preamps or else you'll need a crazy amount of gain (and then noise reduction) specially in order to record quieter sources such as acoustic guitars and vocals.

This is a nice ribbon mic

I love the sound, but I hate the package. That plastic thing which comes with the mic inside it's not useful at all. Having the cable attached to it it's also not very useful.

Anyways, I'd buy another microphone to have 2 in my set, I love how it sounds for the price.

Lovely warm mic

I bought this as I wanted to try a ribbon mic for recording acoustic guitar. I also bough the Fat amp. Running this through my Focusrite Clarett audio interface was easy and I'm pleased with the results. At this price there is nothing to complain about.

Good overall quite dark mic

Used it mainly on drums, as a room, kit & overhead mic.

Quite nice, a bit dark, so an acquired taste, but great value for price.

Sounds way better than I expected

The thing is BIG. That sort of surprised me. The build quality is good, though. Nothing to complain about at all.

I tested it with a Newsonic maxximizer and a Golden Age Pre.

The sound was a little bassy, but nothing that a little EQ couldn't fix.

Same with the (missing) highs. Turn them up a little, and you've got what you want to hear.

I've made a couple of ribbon microphones myself....just for fun....so I sort of knew what to expect. The RB 500 sounds a little better than my best effort....AND it looks good. Buy one. You won't be disappointed.

Great character mic, after a simple mod.

Out of the box it's too "ribbony" sounding, meaning there is very little presence in the sound, much proximity effect, narrow frequency response and very, very low output.

The mod to save this mic is to take it apart and remove some of MANY layers of built-in pop filtering, this thing has 3 different mesh layers and two of actual CLOTH in each side (I assume because it is targeted to inexperienced people that could easily break it by not putting a pop filter in front of it), after leaving only the mesh layers, the mic became way less muffled and more open in both low and high end.

Its freq. response is scooped at the high mids, but it does capture transients and "air".

I always use it with a FetHead, the output is still low for some vocals, but without it you need some serious SPL to move it.

Conclusion:

After modding it and using the FetHead, it's a great backround vocal mic, hallway, or crush mic for drums, I've even used it for a small bass amp and it ROCKED!

It's almost the opposite of a SE-X1R which is "5000 shades of only mids" (fantastic mids though)

Unbelievable

A ribbon mic at this price? And it's great!

It's my first ribbon mic, I own a pair and used them to record drum room, guitar amps and also vocals.

A bit boomy around 200Hz but nothing to really worry about if you have good EQ, and at this price you can't expect any better.

Totally satisfied, since the day I bough it I don't think there's a production for which I haven't used it.

Cons: the cable makes the placement a little hard, but it's ok. It could be fixed in the future.

Signal level is a bit low (obviously being a ribbon mic), for which I'd recommend buying the FetAmp as well.

Works like any ribbon mic should. You will need a preamp that can provide sufficient juice however.

Great!!

I used this mic to record mainly voices and a Banjo. It has a very warm dark sound, so for bright inputs as female voice or banjos works incredibly. It works very good also for male voices and guitar amplifiers but you have to work a bit more finding a right spot or maybe using some EQ not to make it sound too dark. It has a very low input volume so it can be useful to add a +25db filter before it. Anyway very very good product!

Good for the price - But do some mods

I use this mic to record voice and acoustic guitar. It's well build with a warm and not defined sound. And you have to put a loooot of gain in your pre-amp to get a decent signal.

I suggest that you open the mic, take off the nylon and metal protection and use. It will become another kind of mic!

With a vintage warm tone, the way you think a ribbon mic.

It worth it... but do the mod (you can find in internet and foruns)

Great and inexpensive!

Incredible price/quality ratio! It works great on guitar cabinets, didn't test it yet on voice but I guess will be great as well. The sound is quite balanced and natural, placed only few centimeters aways from an electric guitar's cab.

Worth the investement if you need a ribbon but also have to buy other microphone/gear. Otherwise, if you have more money to put on only one microphone and you're sure it has to be a ribbon, I would suggest a Cascade Fathead or even a Royer, because they have a better frequency response and are more towards pro requirements. Also, they would let you plug your own cable. In fact, would be great if this same microphone would allow you to plug your cable instead of having its stock one, which if broken, would render the mic useless. Other than that, bravo t.bone, great product!!!

Good value!

Sounds really great on guitar-cabs, vocals and drums.

Instant vintage.

I got two of these for recording drums (40's/50's style Chicago blues) and the sound is close to perfect IMO. Works quite good on guitar for that gritty blues-sound with an old 10w tube-combo as well.

Really good budget ribbon mic

This is a really good budget ribbon mic. I took out some material from the inside of the grill and got a much clearer tone. Really good for overheads or in combination witha condeser on a guitar cab