CHICAGO — Shure’s iconic SM58 Vocal Microphone, the most photographed and recognized microphone in the world, has its own day to celebrate – May 8 (5/8). This day celebrates the storied history of the SM58. If you’ve ever heard someone sing or speak into a live microphone, there’s an excellent chance it was an SM58. Rock stars. Pop idols. Comedians. Movie stars. Educators. Presidents. Popes. World leaders. Legendary words have passed through its iconic grille for generations.
Introduced in 1966, its superior acoustic engineering and durability has set the global standard for performance microphones.
The legendary Shure SM58 Vocal Microphone is designed for professional vocal use in live performance, sound reinforcement, and studio recording. A highly effective, built-in spherical filter minimizes wind and breath “pop” noise. A unidirectional (cardioid) pickup pattern isolates the main sound source while minimizing unwanted background noise.
Rugged construction, a proven shock-mount system, and a steel mesh grille ensure that even with rough handling, the SM58 will perform consistently, outdoors or indoors. In fact, “mic drops” were made famous with SM58s.
And, The Who’s Roger Daltrey famously would swing his SM58 around the stage as he described in his video about his love for the microphone.
“I find this microphone to be absolutely remarkable,” said Daltrey. “And no one’s been more abusive to a microphone than I am.”
SOME SM58 HISTORY…
For five decades, the Shure SM58 has been a world standard in handheld vocal performance microphones. The story of the SM58 goes back to 1961, when Shure engineer Ernie Seeler developed the Unidyne III cardioid capsule, based on a new diaphragm design that offered uniform deflection characteristics over a wide frequency range without “break-up.” After three years of hard work and hundreds of tests involving dropping, throwing, cooking, salt spray immersion and submersion, the SM Series was born, and Seeler’s same capsule design was first employed for 1965’s SM57 and later with the SM58, with the chief difference between the two mics being the ball-shaped pop windscreen. Ironically, Seeler (a classical music fan who hated rock ‘n’ roll) created two of the mics that 50 years later, remain a mainstay of rock music.
For more info, visit shure.com.
