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Copperphone

Specialty microphone

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ5168843
Source-derived summary

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.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Copperphone” as specialty microphone. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 202-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Copperphone, Specialty and microphone can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as specialty microphone. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5168843. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Copperphone”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Copperphone primary sources, Copperphone archive and Copperphone research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Copperphone”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

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.