I use Groove Tubes in some of my gear. My beloved Presonus TubePre mic preamps sound so much better now that I have GT tubes installed, and I know many guitarists who wouldn’t use anything else. But did you know that Groove Tubes also made mics? Now you do!

I’ve had a Groove Tubes MD1 since the mid ’90s, and I love it. It was very expensive back in the day (almost $1,000 as I recall), but it’s a great mic that has a lovely warm “valve-y” (as the Brits put it) sound to it. My voice has a tendency to have some hard overtones, but the MD1 does a great job smoothing it out. The only problem with the Groove Tubes mics was that they were hard to come by the last few years.

Today, I got my usual advertising email from Sweetwater, one of my favorite vendors. And lo and behold they are selling Groove Tubes mics again! Huzzah!! You can see a complete list here:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/search.php?s=s%3Agt_special_buy

Of special note is the MD1b Tube and the MD1b FET. The Tube model is pretty much a reproduction of the MD1 that I love but at a much, much lower price tag ($349 at Sweetwater). The FET model is the same capsule and body but with an FET replacing the valve section. I prefer the tube sound myself, but FET mics are fine and dandy as well.

I have no idea how long Sweetwater will carry these mics, but they are worth looking at, especially at this price. If you’ve always a ribbon mic, Sweetwater is also carrying the Groove Tubes VELO 8 mics at ludicrously low prices.

Check ‘em out!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at 8:06 am and is filed under Audio, Hardware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.