Another Unidyne SM57...the "Fixer-Upper"...

So, from my last flip, wherein I tripled my money in 24 hours by buying and selling an old Unidyne III SM57, I went on the hunt for instrument microphones.

(For myself, I got a slightly less-expensive but responsive instrument microphone from Audio-Technica, the Midnight Blue MB2k. This is going to be my "keeper" microphone, so other purchases are really just for profit.)

Anyways, on ebay, I found an auction for a non-working Unidyne SM57: eBay link and quickly followed the auction, planning to bid the minimum ($60) at the end of the auction.

In a crazy twist of fate, my mobile eBay app wasn't working properly and I missed the end of the auction, where I was going to swoop in. Luckily, I was able to message the seller and ask if he'd be interested in selling the item at a reduced cost, as he hadn't described the issue.

Side note: If you look at the description, you see it "has been worked on" but was non-working, which worried me, as I figured he took it to a tech who couldn't make it work. This turned out to not be the case, as he said he just opened it up and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.

Lo and behold, I made an offer for $50 and got the microphone. It arrived in the mail yesterday. I finally got to open it up today. Brace yourself...

 So here's the bottom of it. Literally every wire was detached between the body and the capsule. Every. Wire. How is that even remotely "worked on"? No wonder it doesn't work!

This picture is actually quite alarming, as the black wire (read: the ground) is attached to the (+) of the element, rather than the middle, using the eyelet on the table to the right of the image. Sigh. Also, look at the terribly poor soldering job. The frayed wire edges on the right eyelet there are worrisome, as they could easily be in contact with the body, effectively grounding what should remain an isolated loop.

So I basically just need to attach the black wire back to the middle where it belongs and attach it back to the copper bar down inside the body, then connect the yellow wire (which is too short to reach the capsule, just by a little) and the green wire to their respective poles on the capsule, and I guarantee this will work again.

Profit, here I come! :)