Meet the Fen-tone - a compact, pencil-style ribbon mic that brings 1950s tone into the modern studio. With a custom Japanese ribbon, Neodymium magnet, CineMag transformer, and built-in 26 dB preamp, it’s tailor-made for electric guitars, drum overheads, and more. Smooth highs, rich mids, tight lows - all without the harshness.
00:00This is the Warm Audio Fentone, a brand new ribbon microphone based on a classic 1950s design
00:05but upgraded to be more usable in real-world setups. Let's check it out.
00:14Today we're going to go put this microphone to the test specifically for you guitar players out
00:18there. I got an electric guitar, clean and distorted. We'll also try it with an acoustic
00:22and see if this one mic can handle all your guitar tones. Right now I got myself a Fender
00:26Telecaster. I'm going through a Marshall DCL40 but we're going to keep it pretty clean
00:30and we're going to see how these single coil pickups react to it. This is the bridge pickup.
00:41Usually with the Tele Bridge it can get really pokey, really bright so
00:45hopefully this ribbon microphone is going to smooth out the tone in a nice pleasing way.
00:56Now when it comes to the neck pickup on a Tele, it's almost the opposite problem. The neck pickup on a Tele can get really, really muddy and flat sounding.
01:09So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation, keep that neck pickup in check without getting too flubbery.
01:14Now when it comes to the neck pickup on a Tele, it's almost the opposite problem. The neck pickup on a Tele can get really, really muddy and flat sounding.
01:22So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation, keep that neck pickup in check without getting too flubbery.
01:29So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:31So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:33So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:35So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:37So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:39So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:41So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:43So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:45So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:47So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:49So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:51So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:53So let's see if we could actually handle some of that separation.
01:54And then when we get to the middle position on the Telecaster, we want to get that cluck through.
02:05So we do want that attack, but we also want a little bit of openness down in the bottom to keep things nice and chirpy.
02:24So now that we've heard it clean, let's go switch guitars, put some humbuckers on, get the gain going and see how this thing performs.
02:36Ribbon microphones are known for being great with clean guitars because they smooth the top off, add a little bit of texture, but they can get a little bit muddy when it comes to humbuckers, especially when you're really getting the gain up.
02:49So can this microphone hold things together? Well, let's go find out.
03:24Well, here's a little extra bonus for you. I'm going to do a little playback. I have myself playing electric guitar through the amplifier.
03:37I'm going to switch between the classic SM57 and the Fentone so you could really hear where the differences lie.
03:43Now that we've heard it with the electrics, let's go move over to the acoustic guitars.
03:47Now that we've heard it with the electric guitar, let's go move over to the acoustic guitars.
04:13I have an entry-level guitar, laminate backs, tops, and sides. It's brand new, so it hasn't broken in yet. Brand new strings.
04:20Let's go see what this guitar is going to sound like when I try it with this microphone.
04:24Let's go.
04:25Let's go.
04:26Let's go.
04:27Let's go.
04:28Let's go.
04:29Let's go.
04:30Let's go.
04:31Let's go.
04:32Let's go.
04:33so now we're going to switch to a very different guitar this is a martin d18 much more expensive
05:01and there's a unique thing here i got some pretty old strings on it so they're going to be a little bit more dead sounding a little bit more thumpy
05:06so let's go see how that microphone reacts to this guitar
05:31guitar solo
05:38guitar solo
05:45so you've heard the fan tone with the electrics you heard it with the acoustics what do you think
06:14i actually just had a chance to listen to everything back and i think in general my thoughts would be this
06:19when it comes to the electrics i find it does a really nice thing to the clean sound by evening
06:25things out just smoothing it out clean guitars especially my single coil pickups they get quite
06:30pokey and it just brings in a little bit more fullness down low and a little bit more smoothness
06:36up top when i started adding the gain with the humbuckers you're going to get that nice creamy
06:42sound i think that's really great for layering i think it's really cool for adding a feeling of just
06:47size and i do believe especially for you cats out there like content creators or people that are just
06:54trying to get the sound of one electric guitar in the room it's like maybe electric guitar and voice
07:00i think the the ribbon sound really lends itself well to that because it fills it in it makes it sound
07:06really natural like it's in the room with you when it comes to the acoustic guitar um i we actually
07:12tried it a couple different ways we put the thing in the more traditional right in front of the 12th
07:17fret kind of vibe we found that that added a lot of warmth and thump to the sound uh with that case
07:23i would probably recommend using something like a small diaphragm condenser along with it so you have
07:28the thickness and the warmth of the pickup with just a little bit more detail now when i backed it up
07:33and we put it right by the nut uh what we got was a very very beautiful sound because we got the sound
07:39of the room we're just in a room we're not in the studio and we got a lot of that room sound going
07:45on and it gave me this beautiful almost americana kind of sound it's really natural it's really kind
07:51of neutral and it really just sits uh very very good for singer songwriter music and also uh really
07:58good if you just want your guitar to be tucked in a little bit and i think that's what i would have to
08:02say about this uh microphone check out the links below if you want to learn more about the fentone
08:06that being said we'll see you on the next guitar world spotlight
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