Phonics and MAY Internal mics?

[Scott_M]

I'm looking at gigging my Phonics with my current band, and would like to use some MAY internal mics I have for gigs where we're supplying our own amplification.

My main concern is that the screws attaching the lugs to the shells do not have any washers or grommets, and I was wondering if/how others have addressed this issue with internal mic mounts.

Is it just a simple mater of adding some strong washers?
Did you replace the lug screws with slightly longer ones with larger screw heads?
Did you put something under the bracket to protect the inside veneer of the shells (mine are the plain, unveneefred ones)?
Combination of the above?
Something else entirely?

And before anyone starts doing the "Why would you do that?" or "Internal mics don't sound right and are a waste of time" arguments - I've previously used this same set on my Birch Designers with excellent results for live work. Sold the Designers, I still have all the mounts, cables, vent connectors, etc I need for this kit.

[Jules]

Educated guess - use some quality washers.

As to the internal mics, Steve Miller Band's road crew used may systems to internally mount mics into the SQ2 set I sold them and the drums sound PHENOMENAL in the mix. This is directed not at you, Scott, but at anyone who wants to dispute the validity of internal mics.

[Scott_M]

Educated guess - use some quality washers.

As to the internal mics, Steve Miller Band's road crew used may systems to internally mount mics into the SQ2 set I sold them and the drums sound PHENOMENAL in the mix. This is directed not at you, Scott, but at anyone who wants to dispute the validity of internal mics.

Yeah, if they're not setup well, they do sound like crap (much more so than poorly positioned top mics do...). Seems a lot of people aren't expecting the amount of work and understanding needed to get them setup well, so their results are "less than optimal"

They did take a pretty fair bit of "fiddling" to get mine dialed in correctly and get the best sound. Any time you need to reposition them, it means having to take the head off the drum, tweak positioning, retune, and check the results of the new positioning - Took me 2 hours to get just the Bass drum setup (1st one I'd done), but the rest of that kit (3 toms and snare) only took about 2 hours total.

Once they were in and set though, I never had to touch them again, and they sounded great through the PA.

One thing that helped in my case, the specific make/models of the microphones I have were chosen for each drum in my Designer kit by Randy May himself. Spoke with him this past weekend about moving them to my SQ2's and he thought they'll work equally well in those (Sennheiser e604 for mounted tom, EV 868's for Bass and floor toms, and SM-57 for snare).