I had my Electro-Voice RE-15 for the longest time tucked away in storage at my uncle's house, while I was living in Newfoundland. I couldn't even remember what I had paid for it, but I remember buying it in Halifax, along with my second Leslie 147RV purchase (two Leslies are wicked!). I do remember the salesman telling me it was a very good microphone. This was probably the late 60's.

A few years ago, I get to talking with some guy in my buddy's recording studio about vintage microphones, and I tell him about my RE-15. He immediately wanted to buy it at a pretty decent offer, but I held on to it as I didn't need the money at the time.

I did a bit of research, and I find out that it is an extremely good microphone, both in it's day, and still very much today. I've seen them going for around $600-$800 on E-Bay. I also learned that it was a microphone used by Elvis for quite a few of his shows and some live recordings, and it's a fairly sought after mic.

Back when I bought it, I tended to buy the highest quality gear I could manage..my Yamaha MS-60S were quite expensive nearly 30 years ago at around $800 each, but it paid off as the microphone is still functioning (and looking) perfect, and so are my MS-60S.

Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

Another mic I just sold a few years ago, a Shure SM58 was also a lovely performing mic that was every bit as rugged and reliable as the RE-15. I used it mostly when singing backup in a few of the bands I played in.

I'm sure there are better performing newly developed mics out there, and they probably cost less, but I don't know if they would hold their value as well as the SM58 and RE-15.

Ian