National WM-730a

The National WM-730a is a high-end Japanese made large diaphragm condenser from the early 1970’s. The microphone has a unidirectional polar pattern and a 3-way high pass filter switch. This was National’s answer to the Sony C38 FET, and was the more expensive option at the time. It’s a brilliant sounding mic that has a little more top end zing than the C38b, without being too harsh or strident. It’s a great vocal mic, and also fares well as an overhead, snare mic, or guitar mic.  National rebranded the WM730a for Technics as the Technics RP3880-C which differed mostly  in appearance.

Like many other Japanese condensers, the WM-730a is powered using a 9 volt battery but does not accept phantom power. I used to think that sucked and would modify mics that only took 9V, but the realized that the batteries actually last a very long time (hundreds of hours of use), have a more stable voltage and lower noise floor. You can also get rechargeable batteries for them, eliminating the most annoying part of a battery powered mic – running our of batteries and money. The mics also have a really neat voltage meter in the front of the body to check your charge.