Mic #11 Answer

There is an Ampex 3001 microphone in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York! The microphone element was made by Shure, but the overall industrial design of the mic was created by American artist Terrance Nelson Taylor. It’s certainly one of the more stylish microphones made in the 1960s.

The Ampex Model 985 reel-to-reel tape machine came stock with a pair of 1101 microphones. The 3001 seems to have been a microphone upgrade option. Both the tape machine mic input and the 3001 output are unbalanced. The sound is undeniably Shure Unidyne, of which I happen to be a big fan. But it seems to be transformerless, which opens up some new sonic options depending on how you interface it. It’s great for any source where you might use an sm57 but with the tweak-ability (and, admittedly burden) of choosing the kind of interface the element pushes into, transformer or otherwise.

It’s been a fun microphone picture series. Thanks to everyone for following, participating, and encouraging.

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Index to the whole Name That Mic series.