Shure SM 58 LC

I was using Shure microphones in bands back in 1972 and they were noticeably tough and durable with their steel bodies. They had a great reputation even then although how good they sounded in the loud rock bands I was in is a matter best left to history.

'Ziggeeeeeeeee - plaaaaaaaaaaayed gui- tar-ar-arrrrrr!'

Without the need for messing around with batteries like you'd get with a mike requiring an active power source or ghost power off a mixer, this is plug-and-go simplicity. It just works really well and requires no servicing or fussing about with.

The SM57 is the uni-directional model shaped like a tube. This is the one shaped like a lollipop which means a lot to me because my mother was a lollipop lady. By that I mean that she had a long thin body and a big sticky head.

The SM58 gives a lovely clear recording that puts cheap microphones to the sword. There's no point having a studio with digital recording capacity if you are going to feed into it the tinny and dreadful noises cheap microphones produce. Not unless you're going to do rap.

In the studio, this mike gives a lovely, slightly toppy response which is a good thing because to make the vocal cut through the music raising the treble EQ is sometimes a good idea. With this mike you've got a headstart.

The results - assuming you're not my sister - are likely to sound very professional.

It's not surprising that you see the SM58 on so many t.v. shows in the hands of singers or in front of presenters at award ceremonies. The combination of a great big clear and crisp sound with that long-established Shure solidity and reliability means that they get pressed into service by those for whom choices of equipment are of vital importance.

I dropped a Shure microphone on a pub floor in the seventies and a guitarist with attitude looked me right in the eye and in a voice not unlike that of Dirty Harry said, 'You-can-be-so-uncool!'

But I picked up that mike and it was unmarked, undamaged in any way, and we were ready, my friends, to rock.

The SM58 is such a microphone. It won't make you cool but if you drop it only the floor should suffer. And possibly the audience if it still works.

Mine was £69 from Dolphin Music and is available online. If you smashed up the lollipop end they can do a spare for a tenner. And I quote: 'Dents, lipstick, or worse? Your Shure SM48’s and 58’s can look clean and new.'

Microphone humour - I love it.

It is black and you'll need your own lead, mike stand, and recording contract with a major record company.