Topic: DIY fix for worn out Church Audio CA-11 metal contact tabs

[andante]

Here's my makeshift solution to fix the contact tabs on my older Church Audio STC-11 (old versoin of CA-11) microphone bodies.

One of the copper metal contact tabs had lost most of its springiness (perhaps due to age) so it didn't want to stay bent upwards for a good solid connection with the center pin of the removable microphone capsule.  As a result I would sometimes get a lower recording level on this channel.

My solution was to cut a small piece of soft spongy black foam rubber (from an old computer mousepad) into two thin strips small enough to fit underneath each of the contact tabs and then glue the strips to the underside of the tabs with a tiny drop of cyanoacrylate glue.  I then just snipped off the excess with a pair of scissors.

The foam rubber functions like a spring underneath the tabs so that they stay bent upwards and make a solid connection with the microphone capsule.

There is slightly more resistance now when screwing the capsules onto the microphone bodies as they are now compressing the new foam inserts, but not enough (for me) to be concerned about.

I suppose there is a possibility that that this modification might subtly affect the sound of the microphone as the volume of the cavity behind the capsule has been reduced a tad bit. 

Anyway, this seems to have fixed the problem and might be worth a try if you have an older pair of Church Audio STC-11 or CA-11 microphones with worn-out contact tabs.


Before:


Strip before cutting:


After: