DIY "bullet" style harmonica mic!

Step 5 Making the gasket (this is VERY important).

Now we must make a gasket for the mic. Why do this? Well, the mic element is too narrow for the shell, and will rattle around if you don't make a gasket to fix it in place, but more importantly, your mic is going to sound really wimpy if the front of the mic element is not AIRTIGHT sealed from the back of the mic element. This is what lets you get great overdriven tone from a tight cup, and also what allows the tone characteristics of the mic shell to come through. The mic gasket seals around the mic element and creates a resonant "acoustic chamber" out of the rest of the mic shell (all the space behind the mic element). This has to be airtight in order to create pressure differentials between the front of the element (where you are playing your harp, and where your cupped hands and mouth are creating another resonant chamber) and the back of the element (which is the resonant chamber created by the mic shell.

Okay, okay. Let me tell you how to do this. This is where we will use one of those rubber feet for putting under table legs. These feet are the right diameter to fit inside the 1 and 1/2 inch PVC end cap part of the shell. All you need to do is cut out the right size hole in one for you mic element to fit into. Luckily, there are some nice rings already stamped into one side of the the rrubber feet that are handy guides for doing this cutting. First, put you mic element on top of the rubber foot to see which ring you should use as a guide (see picture). Then use a utility knife to carefully cut around this ring. You'll want to make the hole just SLIGHTLY larger then the diameter of the mic element. The rubber foot is going to get compressed when we jam it down in the mic shell, and if the fit is too snug around the element, there won't be room for this compression. Don't worry, it'll all be VERY airtight when we're done. Fit the element into the hole you've just carved. See the pictures for how to get it seated properly.

(PS. If you were using a REAL bullet microphone shell, I'd tell you to go to http://www.harpmicgaskets.com and just buy a ready made gasket from them. They work great, and those guys are really nice and will treat you right.)