One of the things I spotted at church this past weekend was that the sound guy had to come over and turn on one of the vocalist’s microphones. He’d asked if it was switched on and they’d looked but thought it had been. To be fair though, the switch on the mic in question (Shure PG58) isn’t that easy to make out, lacking clear ‘off’ and ‘on’ markings.

It’s only a minor thing but it is an unnecessary stress among all the other challenges of setting up a church sound environment. Notably, a lot of professional standard dynamic mics, like my own Shure Beta 58a, dispense with the switch altogether. The person at the sound desk makes the channel live or mutes it and another point of confusion is removed.

So… I’ve made an upgrade using some black electrical tapes. All our PG58s are now permanently on. I’ll have to see how it holds up over time – it’s possible the tape will eventually loosen and allow the switches to move – but it should save a bit of time for some while to come.