If you've ever watched our demos and live sessions, you've heard them: the distinctive, vintage-looking microphones from Ear Trumpet Labs. We use them for pretty much all of our acoustic recordings here in Dedemsvaart. Reason enough to invite founder Philip Graham to the Fellowship for a chat about the history of his company, his design philosophy, and every microphone in the line-up. Discover the story behind these remarkable mics right here. The conversation In this video we welcome Philip Graham of Ear Trumpet Labs to our store. We go through every microphone we have in stock one by one, with sound samples included, and the wonderful local bluegrass band The Lonesome Malones plays a live session on the mics. Prefer to read? Below we've summed up the highlights for you. From software engineer to microphone builder Did you know Ear Trumpet Labs started in a basement? Philip was a software engineer, in a job that didn't make him happy. To keep his sanity, he began tinkering with electronics at home: guitar amps, PA heads, preamps, all kinds of tube electronics. But the real reason for his first microphone was personal. His daughter Malachi wrote songs, and when she had made something she felt was worth recording, Philip wanted to help her out. That was literally the first time he ever started thinking about microphones at all. The circuits looked deceptively simple. "I understand how this works, this maybe won't be too hard," he thought, only to quickly discover it was a lot harder than expected. Not so much the circuit itself, but all the subtleties around it: the precise construction of the head basket and the exact placement of the capsule within it. It took a lot of experimentation before he had a sound he genuinely liked. Over time he learned to tune the circuit to each specific capsule, and to hand-bias the JFET transistors so every microphone performs at its best. All handwork, in other words. A problem nobody had solved Malachi first recorded with the microphone and later played out live with it a few times, which worked surprisingly well. That brought Philip to a question that had been nagging at him for a while: why aren't condenser microphones used live more often, when they sound so good? His frustration came from the acoustic scene he knew so well. Folk singers kept falling back live on techniques that were really meant for rock 'n' roll and loud stages: a dynamic microphone (the classic SM58) right up against the mouth, and an under-saddle pickup in the guitar. He describes that last one as "fingernails on a chalkboard", that annoying, honking midrange. People with beautiful instruments that sounded fantastic in the living room simply didn't come across on stage. And let's be honest: no pickup comes close to a real condenser microphone in front of your instrument. The only problem was that "everybody knows" you can't use a large-diaphragm condenser on stage, because you'll get feedback. Philip proved otherwise. The secret: an even response So how do you make a studio microphone stage-ready? According to Philip it mostly comes down to keeping exactly that goal in mind while designing. What he aims for is a frequency response that's as flat as possible around the entire polar pattern. That, he says, is the main ingredient for stability on stage. On top of that, he deliberately tames the high frequencies. Too many large-diaphragm condensers overemphasise the top end, and that's both a feedback issue and something that sounds unnatural in a live setting. That crisp, airy "air" that can be lovely on a recording simply sounds wrong live. He also trims the bottom end: many studio mics extend far into the low end, and that's exactly what you don't want on stage. The physical construction plays a part too. With the "T-ball" models (more on those below), the original idea was to have the capsule "float" as freely in space as possible, with as little acoustic interference around it. In practice, a small rubber washer on the back of the ball turned out to actually help with directional control. Discovered purely by playing around and experimenting. Why Ear Trumpet microphones look antique One of the first things you notice about an Ear Trumpet Labs is that wonderful retro-vintage look. That didn't come from a marketing plan, but out of necessity. Philip built the first microphones with materials he happened to have on hand. Early on he realised something liberating: a microphone can basically look like anything. As long as you have electrical shielding around the capsule, the rest is up for grabs. So he figured: if I'm making my own anyway, why not make them beautiful? The parts came from unexpected places. A wonderful junk hardware store in Portland where he'd prowl through the bins looking for plumbing parts and repurposed hardware. The "T-ball" really is a baseball practice ball. The rings come from a restaurant supply company, other parts are plumbing or lamp hardware. When it turned out there was genuine demand for the microphones, a big part of the work shifted to tracking down suppliers: how do you go from "something out of a junk store" to hundreds of units at a time? The ETL microphones, one by one What immediately stands out as Philip walks through the line-up: not a single microphone is strictly for one job. There are always multiple uses. The Edwina & the Delfina Two large-diaphragm condensers that look identical, but are tuned for a different ideal distance. The Edwina is the spot mic: a single instrument or single source, best within roughly 20 to 45 centimetres. Perfect for a singer-songwriter who wants to capture voice and guitar in one microphone. It's also the brand's best-selling microphone, made famous in part by The Milk Carton Kids, who work as a duo around a single Edwina. The Delfina is the same microphone with a deeper "sweet spot": the tone stays consistent as far away as you can practically stand in the room. Ideal for ensembles and multiple players, and Philip's go-to as an all-round recording mic. You can tell them apart by the bracket: brass on the Delfina, steel on the Edwina. These, by the way, are also the mics we use a lot for our demos. The Wanda The newcomer (about a year old at the time of the conversation), with a clearly tougher look. In use it's similar to the Edwina but the different head basket gives a more concentrated, slightly tighter sound, with more built-in pop filtering. Philip also redesigned the circuit to handle much higher sound pressure levels. That makes the Wanda suitable as a close mic for a guitar amp, percussion, even a snare drum with a heavy-hitting drummer, and for horns. Style-wise he was thinking of an R&B or rockabilly vocal mic. The Nadine The microphone for upright bass, born out of a specific request. Nadine Landry, bassist of Foghorn String Band and a user of the microphones almost from the very beginning, felt left out because there was nothing for her instrument. She came into the workshop, brought her bass and a bunch of donuts, and put Philip to work. The Nadine microphone mounts with an elastic velcro strap between the tailpiece and the bridge of the bass, at just the right distance from the body. The lesson: if you want Philip to build you a microphone, bring donuts. The Edna The only small-diaphragm microphone in the range, with a side-address design. The Edna delivers a very even, uncoloured tone and is meant as a close spot mic for instruments: guitar, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle if you must. Lately we've been using it a lot for our acoustic guitar demos, precisely because of that focused sound with not too much low end. Genuinely a very pleasant mic on acoustic guitar. The Myrtle & the Louise The larger models, tuned for greater distance. These are the classic "centrepiece" microphones that a whole band gathers around, functionally similar, with only a difference in tone. The Louise (named after Philip's own grandmother and one of the very first models) sounds a little brighter and crisper, which suits the attack of banjo and mandolin; partly for that reason it's popular in traditional bluegrass circles. The Myrtle sounds a touch mellower. The difference is largely a matter of taste. This set-up also brings back something beautiful: the interplay of a jam circle, where musicians move in and out of the microphone to bring their instrument forward at just the right moment. Wonderful to watch, and wonderfully natural to play. The Evelyn The odd one out: a stereo pair of two Delfinas, set up at ORTF distance (110 degrees). The Evelyn is a lovely stereo microphone for recording drum overheads, or, as Philip often uses it, as a room mic at around 2.5 to 3 metres with close mics on everything else. Thanks to the Delfina's low-end response, it captures the atmosphere of a room beautifully. We've used it here too for the live sessions in the back of our hall, a nicely "roomy"-sounding space that it captures wonderfully. Grandmothers on stage Which leaves that one question: where do all the women's names come from? Philip thinks of them as "grandma names", powerful old ladies. Louise is named after his own grandmother. Ever since, he regularly asks people for their grandmothers' names, keeps a list, and sees what sticks. Wanda is partly a nod to Wanda Jackson; Nadine to bassist Nadine Landry. Want to hear them yourself? What makes the Ear Trumpet Labs story so appealing is that nearly every design choice came from a real problem or a real limitation. A father who wanted to help his daughter. A frustration with how acoustic music sounded live. Parts from a junk store. A bassist with donuts. The result is a range of microphones that aren't just beautiful to look at, but give acoustic musicians back something they'd lost on stage: their own, natural sound. We're big fans here, and you can hear that in our demos. Want to hear the mics for yourself? Watch the video above for the sound and video samples of every microphone and the live session by the Lonesome Malones. And be sure to drop by in Dedemsvaart if you'd like to experience them in person, we'll gladly let you hear them.