EV 4-EV-A
An EV die-hard walks us through his vintage mic collection — from the war to JFK to Broadway.
By Mark Davie
18 January 2015
Phill Webb has been enthusiastically following the EV trail since the ’70s, and metamorphosed from unwitting EV advocate to brand aficionado along the way. In 1980, Phill moved to Sydney and began working part time for CS-Trilogy (The PA People). One day, when he was asked to do sound for a conference that involved a children’s choir, the hire manager gave Phill four ‘amazing’ choir microphones and threw in four ‘ordinary’ EV rock ’n’ roll mics, saying it was all that was left on the shelf. During the gig Phill monitored the microphones on headphones and agreed there were four fantastic mics and four ordinary ones. It was only during pack up when he realised the top performing units he was hearing were the ‘bog standard’ EV mics. So when he got back to the shop Phill put on a demo of the two different mics for the business owner who was equally impressed. Consequently, the business changed its sales strategy and went from a small EV microphone account to one of the largest in the country.
Phill started selling EV mics, and just like EV co-founder Lou Burroughs made a habit of abusing EV mics to prove their hardiness, developed his own destructive demos. A favourite tactic of his was to hurl mics across the room, chase them down, plug them in and prove they still worked. On one occasion a mic landed at the feet of the EV sales manager who’d just happened to walk in the door. He was so impressed with the demo he offered to fix the mic at no charge if it ever broke. Over the next 10 years, the mic broke only twice, even though it was thrown on average 10 times a week.
These days, Phill works for Bosch, the distributor for EV in Australia, and he’s got one of the biggest personal vintage EV mic collections in the world. He took the time to walk us through some of them, giving a potted history along the way.
T45
Webb: “Lou Burroughs submitted this lip microphone design to the US Marine Corp for evaluation in 1942. The company had five employees at the time, and Burroughs had 50 units in stock with a build capacity of 25 per day. The military ordered 5000 pieces with a further order for another 5000 in the works for the following week, and EV went from five employees in 1942 to 500 in 1945. The Pentagon used to send a B29 bomber to South Bend just to pick up microphones. After the war, Lou received a citation from the Pentagon for services to the war effort and was told the Allied assault on Guadalcanal was held up three weeks waiting for microphones for the landing craft. It was said this microphone improved the audibility under battlefield conditions by 70%.”
664
Webb: “This was the world’s first Variable D microphone. Designed by Lou Burroughs and released in 1954, it is to EV what the 55SH is to Shure. It’s the ancestor of the venerable RE20, and by far EV’s most iconic microphone. It was one of EV’s first balanced, low impedance microphones, and the original ‘Buchanan Hammer’ [Buchanan being the home town of EV]. Lou Burroughs would demonstrate the 664 by hammering a three-inch nail into a piece of wood with the mic while it was plugged into a sound system!
“It’s often been suggested the EV 635A is the Buchanan Hammer, even EV’s site says so. But if you’ve ever picked up a 664 you can understand how Lou could get a three-inch nail into a plank with it, it’s heavy! Trying to do the same with a 635A would take you forever.
You could do it, it’s certainly hardy enough, but the real Buchanan Hammer was the 664. I think over the years confusion has arisen due to the fact the 635a is the only 600 series mic still current (it was released in ’63), and people forget about the older 664.
“EV lore says the only time the microphone ever failed was during a demonstration in Chicago that had a Shure Brothers employee present — perfect. During the ’50s and ’60s, the 664 was by far EV’s best selling public address microphone and was OEM’d to a number of other manufacturers. It’s featured in movies like the Ray Charles and Johnny Cash biopics, as well as Jersey Boys. In fact, a set of 664s are featured on the main Jersey Boys poster for both Broadway and Australia theatre runs.”
665
Webb: “The microphone that really put EV on the map in broadcast circles and dominated TV on-air audio for 20 years. It was released in 1952 and featured in Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. It was also the microphone Johnny O’Keefe used at Sydney Stadium. An omni-directional noted for its flat and predictable response, prior to the release of the 635a this was EV’s standard ENG microphone. If you watch the documentaries on the JFK assassination all the interviews in 1963 immediately after the event use 665s, yet 12 months later when the Congressional report came out everyone was using 635as. Most of the microphones in the Beatles press conference when they landed in America are 655s. In fact, there are only two microphones in the picture that are not EVs.”
666
Webb: “A spec’d up version of the 664 designed for broadcast applications and was fitted with a Cannon UA connector that was the predecessor of today’s XLR connector (twice the size and a slightly different shape). It was designed for both recording and on air broadcast, and served as a chronicler of JFK’s presidency: JFK used it for the Cuban Missile Crisis speech; Marilyn Monroe returned the favour with ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’; and Walter Cronkite was sitting behind a 666 when he announced the JFK assassination on air.
This microphone was also widely used in recording and to record all Motown vocals up until 1968.”
667a/668
Webb: “The success of the 666 led to the 668 (variable roll off, variable impedance) and 667a (identical to the 668 but without the variable roll off) which became a standard in film/TV production. EV has a letter from Glenn Glenn studios in Hollywood thanking them for the release of the 667a. The letter says everything the studio had produced between 1963 and 1966 had been recorded with either a 667a or 668. This included a whole raft of iconic American sitcoms (Bewitched, Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream of Jeannie, etc). The very first RE20s produced were engraved and personally delivered by Burroughs to Glenn Glenn studios.”
642
Webb: “EV’s first Cardiline microphone (line gradient shotgun) released in the 1950s, and was the first product to receive an Academy Award for services to the motion picture industry in 1963. All those John Wayne westerns of the ’50s were recorded with 642s. Above is a picture of the Ed Sullivan Show using 642 microphone as an overhead boom.”
643
Webb: “This Super Cardiline microphone was built on the basis of the 642 with a very tight 5° pickup pattern. Only 100 were made (with only two in Australia), and the U.S. military was the prime user, listening for North Korean movements over the DMZ. It was also used at JFK press conferences as he had received so much hearing damage during the war he had trouble hearing questions during white house question time. They used a 643 to record the press questions to check whether they were answered correctly in case a correction had to be issued before the paper went to print.” If only they had one of these at after-match press conferences. We might actually hear the questions!
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