Shortening Audio Technica 3350 wire

[Kelly Huffaker]

As most of us know, the Audio Technica 3350 lav mic is a pretty popular mic for those "budget" videographers. The sound is ok, not the best, but does pretty good at it's relatively cheap price.....However the 25 foot wire is a pain in the $%&! Does anyone know of any tutorials on shortening this wire? Like splicing it and reattaching it somehow?

[Rick Reineke]

Judging by a picture of the mic, the wire would need to be cut and re-connected at the battery module. Probably relatively easy for anyone experienced in working with small shielded cables and soldering circuit board connections. I would not recommend a novice attempt this.

[Don Bloom]

Why cut it and chance destroying it. Make a few loops and batten it down with a wire tie. The flexible kind that holds all of our wire together when we buy a new toy. That way should you need to go long for any reason you still have that option.

[Paul R Johnson]

A good trick for shortening cables without wrecking them is to use heat shrink sleeving. Wrap the surplus cable around the preamp, in a tight wrap. When you have the right length of cable left, a dab of tape to hold it, then put the heat shrink on, and use the hot air gun to secure the wrap. If at some stage in the future you need to restore the length, just carefully remove it with snips!

[Greg Miller]

That's an interesting idea. But do you mean put heat shrink around the whole preamp (with the included wire)? That would be a damned big size of heat shrink.

[Paul R Johnson]

yep - around the entire thing. You can get heat shrink in all kinds of sizes, including big enough to waterproof xlrs, or RF connectors. The stuff I have was intended to go over N type cable connectors, and is available in transparent as well as black, so you can put it around the entire preamp and it keeps it neat and today and stops the cable unwinding. Looks a bit odd, but does the trick. Either that, or you could use self-amalgamating tape, which works just as well, but is a bit 'rubbery' and more tricky to remove.

[Greg Miller]

OK, just wanted to be sure I understood what you were suggesting.

But with that particular mic, don't you have to open up the preamp to change the button cell? wouldn't that mean you need to remove the shrink and cabling, etc., every time you needed a new cell?

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Kelly Huffaker

As most of us know, the Audio Technica 3350 lav mic is a pretty popular mic for those "budget" videographers. The sound is ok, not the best, but does pretty good at it's relatively cheap price.....However the 25 foot wire is a pain in the $%&! Does anyone know of any tutorials on shortening this wire? Like splicing it and reattaching it somehow?

Is the long cable the one going from the power supply to the 1/8 plug? If so, it should be easy enough to cut the cable to the desired length and solder a new plug on the end. All you'd need would be a standard 1/8 stereo plug from the Shack. And if you cut the wire and then discover it's something too difficult for you to solder, at a replacement cost of $17 from Amazon or B&H it's no big loss.

[Kelly Huffaker]

Ya know, i might just be better off buying a different lav mic now!!

[Paul R Johnson]

yes - but they last for ages and ages - my AT managed months and months - and I always found I needed to regain the extra length every now and then anyway.