Vintage mic wiring (probably stupid Q)

[rightintheface]

Ok so I have an ev 664 that sounds great for my voice through the PA. When I bought it I ditched the 4 pin amphenol connector and wired an xlr using hot, cold, and ground wires, taping off the hi z wire (yellow). Works great!
So, out of curiosity....

What would happen if I wired up the yellow hi z line (as well as ground of course) to a 1/4 jack, and plugged it into something like a delay pedal sent to an amp or DI (or whatever, simply for experiments sake), whilst SIMULTANEOUSLY using the lo z xlr to send to the pa. Will this work? Will it change the sound of the regular lo z signal? Will it be noisy as hell? Will it blow up the mic?
Just thought i'd throw it out there before I go ahead and do it.. Reason being, it would be nice to have my own vocal fx chain controlled by myself, and I can't be arsed forking out for a dedicated vocal fx unit, and I have plenty of spare stomps around. I've messed around with using two mics before (one direct to PA, one to fx/DI) which worked ok, but obviously just having 1 mic would be even better.

[Hookemeister]

Hi Mitch

There's no such thing as a stupid questions.... just stupid answers.

OK here we go.

First off I must compliment you on a great classic Electro-Voice mic. This mic is built like a tank!

What would happen if I wired up the yellow hi z line (as well as ground of course) to a 1/4 jack, and plugged it into something like a delay pedal sent to an amp or DI (or whatever, simply for experiments sake), whilst SIMULTANEOUSLY using the lo z xlr to send to the pa. Will this work?

Yes, if you follow the instruction below.

Will it change the sound of the regular lo z signal?

No, not if you follow the instruction below.

Will it be noisy as hell?

No, not if you follow the instruction below.

Will it blow up the mic?

No, the transformer isolates the capsule.

You've picked the picked the perfect mic for this application but unfortunately you've removed the 4 pin socket. If you've still got the 4 pin socket I would reinstall it and it will make the process a lot easier. This way you could get 2 low profile cables into the 4 pin plug and run the Hi-Z cable to your FX pedal and the Low-Z to the PA.

The 664 has a dual winding on the output side of the transformer.

Wiring for the original 4 pin EV plug.

Pins 1 (white) & 2 (Yellow) are the Hi-Z outputs of the transformer.

Pin 1 (White) goes to the shield or earth on the jack plug & Pin 2 (Yellow) goes to the Tip of your jack plug,

Pins 3 (Red) & 4 (Green) are the Low-Z outputs outputs of the transformer.

Pin 3 (Red) connects to Pin 2 on the XLR cable, Pin 4 (Green) connects to Pin 3 on the XLR cable & Pin 1 (White) connects to Pin 1 on the XLR cable.

The other option, if you haven't got the original 4 Pin socket, would be to remove the the 3 pin XLR you've fitted to the mic and install a 4 or 5 pin XLR plug. This way you can get both Hi-Z Unbalanced & Low-Z Balanced on the same connector.

Hope this helps.

[rightintheface]

Greg, I can't thank you enough mate! Champion!
They are great mics, got a kind of vintage-y sound but still got great clarity and seem pretty smooth. The lack of proximity effect works wonders for me live, stops the mud.
Plus, it looks too cool...

[Hookemeister]

No problem Mitch... my pleasure.

Plus, it looks too cool...

It drips coolness!

It's also known as the Buchanan Hammer due to a unique marketing ploy by one of the founders of Electro-Voice.

He would use a 664 to hammer in a nail, then plug it to the PA to show that still worked perfectly.

I wouldn't recommend trying that... but they are pretty tough.