Western Electric 639A & 639B Microphone Manual Mike RCA

This is a restoration of the Western Electric 639A and 639B poly-directional ribbon microphone operating manual. This unusual and classic design uses a velocity-type ribbon element and a pressure-type dynamic element in combination to create a variety of pickup patterns. By adjusting the screw, you can have a bi-directional ribbon-only response, an omni-directional pressure response, a pure-cardioid directional response, or 3 other semi-directional responses (B version only).

See my eBay store (click in the heading area above/right) to see the individual listings for the many restored microphone manuals and documents available. The top category is Microphone Manuals.

This listing is not for an old original manual, but a restored copy.

The time-consuming restoration process involves carefully scanning the original manual into Adobe Photoshop and spending hours processing each page to produce a manual that looks better-than-new. All photos are stripped out and processed separately. All tears, marks, stains, etc. are removed from the original manual, even printing defects are corrected. The text is brought back to original sharpness and detail, as are all of the illustrations. I use heavy, textured paper stock (similar to the original manual) for the front and back covers, and 32 lb. laser paper for the inside pages. The 12 pages (insides of covers are blank) are all individually printed on a photo-quality printer. The outside covers are further protected by 10-mil thick clear plastic sheets. Everything is then bound with a black plastic ring comb, so that the manual will open flat and be very durable.

This is a highly professional product that takes a lot of time to prepare, but it is worth it! eBay customer feedback has been very positive regarding quality. So, if you own one of these classic microphones, you deserve a quality manual to go with it.

This manual contains a photo of the microphone, and gives detailed descriptions, specifications, wiring, applications, frequency response, and directivity curves.
Although the original WE manual was in excellent condition for its age, the quality of the printing left much to be desired. Through the restoration process, the photograph of the microphone and the surrounding 6 directivity curves were greatly enhanced and made much more readable. The 6 corresponding frequency response curves (at the back) were originally quite small and very hard to read. After restoring the graphs, I enlarged them, maintaining the enhanced resolution, making them easy to read. The section view showing the detailed internal construction of the mike is also perfectly clear. I must have spent 2 hours just cleaning up the telephone logo on the front, which was very sloppily printed on the original. The look of the original manual was carefully maintained, while creating a cleaner, sharper, and easier-to-read copy.

The information in this manual is invaluable to those using these vintage WE microphones to best effect. Most of the original manuals have been lost. Now you can have something even better!



The photos are of an actual restored manual (only a few pages are shown).

WE COMBINE SHIPPING -- WE SHIP OFTEN

US & Canada PAYPAL preferred. Other International Payments accepted via PAYPAL ONLY no exceptions.  Your purchase is subject to cancellation if you violate these terms.

Buyer to pay USPS International or Domestic Priority Shipping if available to your country. Each manual is wrapped in plastic shrink-wrap and shipped in a box in the US. International shipments for 2 manuals or less are shipped using a large international envelope to save you money or a box if 3 or more manuals are shipped.  Our shipping is using eBay's calculator to your specific location as the US Postal for most accurate pricing.  If you buying multiple items, and shipping appears high, please contact us with your exact ship-to address and we will confirm pricing before your purchase!

See my other auctions and eBay store for framed and unframed RCA Microphone ads, many other microphone manuals and supplements, and the RCA Microphone bags to protect your mics (and to look sharp!), as well as fun items like T-shirts and magnet sets.

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