Hey guys
I need a really good boom pole. I have been using a cheap mic stand for a pole and now have the money for something high quality. I only have a mic so I think I will need a holder for the sennheiser 67 mic also. I only want the best. I prefer it to not be very long when in travel form. I’m used to about 3 feet compact. So anything smaller would be awesome. I think most are. What do you guys recommend for purchase for me?

Best is Sennheiser MKH60 P48. used on all major motion picture productions. You can get one for about $1300-1500 NEW on eBay.

The K-Tek Boom poles are very nice.

http://www.mklemme.com/pole/ktekpoles.html

I have a K-Tek 202 ccr and I am very happy with it. I use it with the MKH-60 and MKH-70 with the full Rycote setup.

I own two carbon-fibre K-Tek, but their low-cost Avalon poles are also quite nice. As are Panamic, LTM (if you can still find them), VdB (a bit uneven), and Ambient. I guess my favorites would be K-Tek and Ambient. The new Professional Sound Corp (PSC) poles also look nice, too.

For doc/ENG use, a 9-foot pole is nice. But a 12-foot pole is handy for some episodic work.

The K-Tek 152 collapses to 3ft and extends to 12.5ft. The 16-foot 202 is nice, but is, um 3.5ft (or so) collapsed.

Hope this helps,

Jim

I've only used a few different booms, but when I used what looks like a vDB model that eveyone in town seems to have I noticed it was much more susceptable to noise from handling. Not from moving in the air so much, but from moving my hands and that kind of thing. So, gloves were a must. I know gloves are adviseable in general, but are there some booms that need them more than others? Do K-Teks have a problem with this?

For me and my K-Teks, it depends on the conditions. If it's really cold or really hot (ie- stiff little fingers or sweaty palms)...then gloves are handy. But for much EFP/doc stuff, I'm OK without gloves. But I do wash my hands once in a while...no more than you need to avoid colds, though...

Could have been your VdB, or could be your grip, your hands, whatever. I sometimes use very thin glove liners, though. Anyway, when I need gloves bit more inconspicuous and keeps my hands from getting too hot.

But it's not much of an issue for me...

Best,

Jim

Jim, thank you very much for that feedback! Sounds pretty promising. Guess I'll have to audition one.
Thanks again!

Oh geez, one thought:

Perhaps aluminum pole are more sensitive to hand-stick noise than carbon fiber. I have carbon poles...(but then, aren't most VdB poles carbon, too?)

Anyway, that might be an issue...I've only used alum poles a few times and the weather was fine...thus no noise?

Best,

Jim

Thanks, Jim. Actually, they were aluminum poles (the ones with the noise I mean). Not sure that they were vDB but they certainly look like the used vDB aluminum poles from the pictures at Trew. They were quite wide and the noise seemed to bounce around them. On a few occassions I have used a friend's Gitzo aluminum pole which was much thinner and didn't have this problem. Not sure if there's a connection though.