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.
01:29And I'll see you next time.
01:30Anyway, I'll see you next time.
01:31Let's see if we can find anything.
01:32Let's see if we can find anything from my head.
01:33One of the three world is sitting too flubbery.
01:34One of the three, two.
01:35Move in.
01:36The two.
01:37The two very big bands.
01:38The two.
01:39The two.
01:40All the four.
01:41Five.
01:42The two.
01:42Four.
01:43Six.
01:44One.
01:45The two.
01:45Eight.
01:48The two.
01:48One.
01:49The two.
01:50Three.
01:50The two.
01:50One.
01:51One.
01:52One.
01:52Two.
01:53Two.
01:55Two.
01:56Three.
01:56Two.
01:57Two.
01:58Two.
01:58Two.
01:59Two.
01:59And then when we get to the middle position on a Telecaster, we want to get that cluck through so we do want that attack
02:06But we also want a little bit of openness down in the bottom to keep things nice and chirpy
02:29So 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
02:38Ribbon microphones are known for being great with clean guitars because they smooth the top off, add a little bit of texture
02:44But 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
02:59guitar solo
03:29Well here's a little extra bonus for you, I'm going to do a little playback, I have
03:35myself playing electric guitar through the amplifier, I'm going to switch between the
03:39classic SM57 and the Fentone so you can really hear where the differences lie.
04:09Now that we've heard it with the electrics, 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
04:19broken in yet, brand new strings.
04:21Let's go see what this guitar is going to sound like when I try it with this microphone.
04:39So 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've got some pretty old strings on it so they're going to
05:04be a little bit more dead sounding, a little bit more thumpy so let's go see how that microphone
05:08reacts to this guitar.
05:15I've got some pretty old strings here because if you wereowy
05:20coming, you can release a little bit more off the guitar, you'll need a little bit more
05:24to spin it off the guitar rather than just a little bit more, if you don't like a tiny
05:27bit more diffuse even if you don't mind!
05:30So I don't mind using a little millisecond in memory and you'll see how thatところ might
05:33be in there
05:34And what I do isroc 666 got my own submissariat, but minimize the dropping of all goodVerut
05:45So you've heard the fan tone with the electrics, you heard it with the acoustics, what do you
06:14think? I actually just had a chance to listen to everything back and I think in general my
06:18thoughts would be this, when it comes to the electrics, I find it does a really nice thing
06:23to the clean sound by evening things out, just smoothing it out. Clean guitars, especially my
06:28single coil pickups, they get quite pokey and it just brings in a little bit more fullness down
06:34low and a little bit more smoothness up top. When I started adding the gain with the humbuckers,
06:40you're going to get that nice creamy sound. I think that's really great for layering. I think
06:45it's really cool for adding a feeling of just size. And I do believe, especially for you cats out
06:51there like content creators or people that are just trying to get the sound of one electric guitar in
06:57the room, it's like maybe electric guitar and voice. I think the ribbon sound really lends itself well
07:03to that because it fills it in. It makes it sound really natural like it's in the room with you.
07:08When it comes to the acoustic guitar, we actually tried it a couple different ways. We put the
07:14thing in the more traditional right in front of the 12th fret kind of vibe. We found that that added
07:19a lot of warmth and thump to the sound. With that case, I would probably recommend using something
07:25like a small diaphragm condenser along with it so you have the thickness and the warmth of the pickup
07:30with just a little bit more detail. Now when I backed it up and put it right by the nut, what we got
07:37was a very, very beautiful sound because we got the sound of the room. We're just in a room,
07:41we're not in a studio, and we got a lot of that room sound going on. And it gave me this beautiful,
07:47almost Americana kind of sound. It's really natural. It's really kind of neutral, and it really just
07:53sits. Very, very good for singer-songwriter music, and also really good if you just want your guitar
07:59to be tucked in a little bit. And I think that's what I would have to say about this microphone.
08:03Check out the links below if you want to learn more about the Fentone. That being said,
08:07we'll see you on the next Guitar World Spotlight.
Be the first to comment