"jakdedert" wrote in message
...

I've been noticing a lot of broken 57's on ebay and other venues. Most
I've seen--and the one I bought--have been in mint condition
appearance-wise.

In my case, one wire on the inside had become detached from the voice
coil, at the terminal strip. Access to these things is easy, as many
already know. It was 'just' possible to resolder the wire back to the TS,
but there was enough tension on it that it broke again while reassembling
the mic. After about five trys, I got it right. I succeeded by peeling
the tape which carries the wire down side of the cartridge, splicing a
strand of wire to the old (using forceps and magnifying lamp, fine-tip,
temp controlled iron), retaping and soldering to the TS. Each time I
botched it, the wire got shorter and I had to peel back more tape....

(I've a method for re-installing the plastic pop filter as well.)

Anyway, the question is: have new 57's--specifically--been suffering a
quality issue of late...or are they just inherantly fragile? At any given
time, I'll see newer broken ones for sale. From examination, it didn't
appear to be any worse than the older ones...it's been a long time (20+
years) since I last serviced one. Now that it's fixe, mine sounds great.
Shure will completely refurb one--no matter what the problem is--for
around $50, IIRC...making it usually uneconomical, although still not
'cheap', to DIY.

However, if the problem I encountered is the most common, I could come out
ahead by buying a few broken ones and fixing. I've seen 'em for as cheap
as $15 locally (missed that one). I paid way too much for the one I got,
but it's working now for much less than $50...and now I know how to fix.

jak

I don't know about where you live, but in this part of the world (southern
hemisphere), there has been a lot of knock-off SM57's hitting the market.
They are often traded on internet auction sites. This has prompted Shure to
take full page adverts out, warning of the knock-offs. These mics look
exactly like the real thing, which makes it impossible to know what you're
buying.

Bill.