Copperphone
Specialty microphone

The Copperphone is a hand crafted specialty dynamic microphone designed and built by The Polyphonic Spree bassist Mark Pirro. It uses components from vintage communications equipment as well as a mechanical filtering device to achieve a limited bandwidth frequency response similar to that of AM radio and the nostalgic sound of the early recordings. The Copperphone is manufactured by Pirro and distributed through his company Placid Audio. Placid Audio microphones have been used by many artists including Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age, Lou Barlow, Rush, Norah Jones, Jack White, St. Vincent, The Bright Light Social Hour, as well as Grammy Winning producer Jacquire King
History
Mark Pirro designed the first Copperphone while playing with The Polyphonic Spree. He wanted to produce a "telephone" voice effect for the group's lead singer Tim DeLaughter. Pirro created the Copperphone to produce the phone effect live on stage as opposed to relying on outboard effects. He created a few prototypes, including one using PVC and duct tape, which led to the creation of the first Copperphone. Pirro then started to produce small quantities of the Copperphone out of his garage. He later developed a smaller version of the Copperphone known as the Copperphone Mini.
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This entry incorporates text from “Copperphone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.