MICROPHONE OF THE MONTH NOVEMBER 2024

This month I would like to put a lesser known vintage Philips microphone in the spotlight: the type EL 6021.

The Philips EL 6021 was an omnidirectional dynamic microphone, from around 1955. It had the design that also characterized the better known EL 6030 and it had the same light brown hammerite coating. These two types were the most elegantly styled of the Philips series.

The material of the housing was die-cast aluminum and the model was equipped with a transformer that allowed different output impedances, of 50, 500 and 10,000 Ohm, chosen by rotating the associated now rare 4-pole plug.

The model was much simpler than the EL 6040, the omni directional studio model, from the same period.

Its 1960 price was 160 guilders, which would now be € 616, so it was certainly not a cheap microphone.

The EL 6021 was able to resist rough handling and, like most Philips mics, it was usable in humid tropical conditions with temperatures up to 75 degrees Celsius, so well suited for use in the then Dutch overseas colonies.

The EL 6088/00 element was well protected against dust and iron filings, it was replaced, in 1960, by the more modern EL 6083/00. That capsule was also used for the command model EL 6032 and the EL 6121, a later, somewhat restyled version of the EL 6021, from around 1960.

The EL 6121 was given a dark blue coating, the somewhat old-fashioned base with a hinge that allowed rotating the top, was simplified and the new model only had two different impedances, 500 and 10,000 Ohm, which could be selected on the back via a switch.

Although it is claimed in various places on the internet that these microphones were made in Germany, they were actually Dutch, as stated on the rear of the EL 6121.

The EL 6021 was often used in churches, as the microphone on the pulpit, to address the faithful. The later EL 6121 was also used as a hand microphone by entertainers on stage, although it was actually intended as a quality microphone for tape recorders.

These were certainly not meant as studio microphones, but their sound with a lot of mid-tones makes them sound vintage.

Unlike some other Philips models, these never got a nickname, as far as I know, but they are certainly special. Production of the types probably ended in the mid-sixties.

Many of these microphones are still in good working order, so they are pretty indestructible.

These and many more types feature in my book Witnesses of Words. More information about that can be found at www.witnessesofwords.com