King Bee II comes with a 34-mm center-terminated capsule with a gold-sputtered 6-micron thick Mylar diaphragm and uses discrete solid-state components (not a chip) in a Class-A circuit; it requires 48-volt phantom powering.

I set up for a lead vocal session using the King Bee II plugged into my Retro Instruments PowerStrip, an all tube channel strip with passive EQ and variable-mu compressor. But I only used the mic pre-amp section to record my singer and liked the way the mic kept his sound as natural as possible. The King Bee II delivered a warm tone with good high frequency brilliance and with an even and balanced pickup. I liked that the mic's sensitivity and low noise produced a professional sound instantly without much trouble--the only requirement is to keep in front of the mic, the same distance, and aimed at the mic.

The windscreen worked great to make p-pops a thing of the past and the shock mount took care of occasional bumps to the mic stand.

I next tried the King Bee II on an acoustic guitar recording where I placed it about 20-cm out from fretboard and away from the sound hole for fingerpicking. Then using much less mic gain and a high pass filter, I positioned it right over the sound hole and about 30-cm away for a loud strumming rhythm part. I achieved a full and clean sound. Nice!

Neat Microphones King Bee II is a winner with this wonderful all-purpose utility condenser microphone that can be used for any recording job. Big thumbs up! It sells for $169.99 MSRP.

www.neatmic.com/bee/king-bee-ii-microphone/