Karaoke Forums

Please post the worst things that have happened with your cordless mics.
For instance, stolen, smashed, what-have-you.
I'm curious.
The worst thing I heard of was a host I knew several years ago had his dumped in a toilet one night. It wasn't a cheap Nady, either. Needless to say, knowing that, it's made me nervous to get any for regular singer use.

I had one singer put the mike down into his pants once. Needless to say that mike did not get used for the rest of the night and I pulled out a second wired mike. I disinfected the mike the next Monday and used the two wired mikes for that show as well so that the mike that went down in the pants could be ready for the next week.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Wired or wireless both come with their own inherent set of problems. Wired can always end up getting swung around. At least it's attached to something though :\

I've had wireless's thrown across the room and smashed into a million pieces. I've had them disappear over the course of a night (someone thinks it's cute to hide one under their table) I've seen them up and completely disappear.

Batteries, uggh, don't get me started there.

I wish someone would invent a 300lb mic stand, something nobody could, or would attempt to pick up.

I have SM wired mics and cheap radio mics and a short blurb in the front of my book explaining the pro and cons of each. One of my personal pet peeves is shows that hand out "good" mics (often known as the hosts mic) to "good" singers. So I use a Wired SM for most of my speaking.

I've had quite a customers put my radio mic's down their trousers. Also had a few thrown... (but then I've had the same with lead mic's).

Never had any real problems, infact had wonderful moments where singers leave the stage for audience interaction or perhaps we do a group sing at the end of a busy night and pass the mic around.

To a certain degree I let the customers police themselves... On the rare occasion if a drunk wanders off with the radio mic, I call up the next singer and ask for the mic to be returned at the same time, 99.9% of the time one of the drunk persons mates will bring it back.

I can't justify spending a lot on radio microphones, I've seen people bang them, drop them, scream into them and even lick them! These things don't happen often, but I would lose my cool if someone stuffed a £200 mic into their trousers, or decided to use the microphone as their other hand when they clapped. I find with my audience and my nature I'm better off with a cheaper radio mic, I can relax and calmly educate people on how to care and respect my things... If I gave them them a more expensive one (Which I've toyed with because I have a decent sennheiser I used to use for cabaret) I would lose my temper with the one or two idiots I meet along the way.

I am almost certain (based on several conversations) that 98% of my customers can't hear the difference in quality between them. About 1% do spot the label and opt for the SM.

So all in all... No horror stories from this host
I've heard a lot of Urban Legends about Cordless mic's though

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'A genius is one who can do anything except make a living'. Joey Adams.

The most disgusting thing I've had happen to my wireless was a singer who took it in the bathroom with him while he took a leak and sang the song. At each vocal break you could hear the background noise through the PA. When he was done he did wash his hands and then proceeded into the women's bathroom to serenade a few of the ladies that were answering nature's call. When he was done I laughed with him about it but handed him a disinfectant wipe and told him to clean it before I would accept it back. I made a big deal of it over the mic so folks would at least understand I was on top of things.

The most damaging thing I've ever seen done to a mic was way back when I started. I used to work Karaoke with a partner I had in the business (we've long since gone our separate ways with our own companies). We had a cheap set of Vocopro wireless mics and he liked to keep his in his back pocket. Well he was up at the bar and went to pull the mic out of his pocket. It got caught as he did so and went flying (I mean literally flying) out of his hand, over the bar, broke the tops off two bottles of booze before slamming to the ground breaking off the end of the mic, shattering the casing and denting the wind screen. He took (@$%&#!) for a while for being the first to break one of our mics, of course we had both assumed a drunk patron would do those honors for us.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

one cordless missing at the end of the night, found a lobster making sweet love to it at the bottom of the lobster tank when I was clearing out my gear.


Okay the mic was just lying there in the tank, but the lobster makes an interesting story.

Thank god it was a cheapie SHUPU 'made in germany', looked suspiciously like a SHURE.

No fears of anyone stealing a Nady.

Ours were slammed down on the bar by an irate fellow, dropped numerous times, have been in the mic stand when it was knocked over once. One fellow always thinks he has it in the holder and then he walks off and it sort of goes, "Timber" and falls to the ground. Once there was a fight when a lady found her philandering husband with a sweet young thing and our singer managed to shove one lady out the door while never missing a note or losing reception. A fellow high fived my boyfriend with the mic still in his hand--that is the one time we had damage--the battery casing finally cracked. Once I walked up behind someone just as they turned with the mic in their hand and got hit in the eye--glad it wasn't a "real" mic as they are much heavier. This is all one mic--one of the set didn't have as good a pickup so that was the announcing mic.

Probably the worst thing, and this could happen to any mic, was when we cleaned it. One singer is always chewing peanuts and you can guess what we found inside.

The worst thing - my wireless mic Ulxp Beta58 was when a guy sang “I’m not okay”. I guess the frontman of this group; My Chemical Romance is known to slam the microphone onto the floor at the end of the song.

That’s exactly what this punk singer did. At first, he would fling the mic up in the air, and catch it. I interrupted him & told him to knock it off.

At the end of the song he leaps up & on the way down gave the mic a good smashed down against the floor. I was aghast as everyone was shocked. My regulars were cursing at him. He was headed to the exit door when the manager held him at bay. I announced I will make him pay for the damage.

I sound check the mic and to my amazement it still works as if nothing happened, with the exception of heavily cave-in grill. I detached the grill, check the grooves, they're ok. I told him that will cost him $25 for the replacement grill. He apologized and forked out the money. The manager 86’ed him out of the club. Got a used grill at ebay.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

That's the neat thing about the Shure -- it tends to survive mistreatment.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Loaned two to my daughter(school teacher) for a class play. Instead of the bottom, she unscrewed off the ball, then the mic element, thus ripping the wires apart from the rest of the mic, trying to put in fresh batteries.
The wires were so small, I ended up boning an old cordless phone for it's small wires, and transplanted them into the mic with a smidgen of solder....been working for a few years now.....

Three years with Shure wireless mics and no horror stories, just the occasional drop. Replace the ball and good as new. After 3-4 shows a week for three years the quality has been very apparent. All the lettering has been worn off the mics from the thousands of hands, but they still sound good as new. A worthy investment.

I saw a girl put the mic into her mouth one time. I definitely kept my eye on the mic with the red tape until I went up to sing. Ugh.

Can I get her Number please?

like this?

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

One time,, at band camp....

Oh,, that's another story,, haha