The BBC ribbon over Ringo’s kit
The 4038 started out as a BBC design in the 1950s. STC built it first, and Coles has made it since the mid ’70s with the same specs. It looks a bit like a small waffle iron and it sounds dark, wide and very natural, especially on loud things.
At Abbey Road, Norman Smith used a pair as overheads on Ringo Starr’s kit, and Geoff Emerick kept experimenting with them. Ken Scott told Sound On Sound he used one on Paul McCartney’s bass cab and on the Hammond during the Sgt. Pepper and White Album sessions. Glyn Johns’ well-known drum setup often used two of them, and they’re on Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn too.
A Glyn Johns-style setup
Excuse the drawing.
One mic three or four feet above the snare, pointing down. A second just past the floor tom, low, looking across the kit toward the snare. Use a mic cable as a tape measure to get both the same distance from the center of the snare, then add a kick mic. It’s simple and very hard to make sound bad. With 4038s you’ll want a preamp with plenty of clean gain.
Watch and read
- Abbey Road Institute: The Coles 4038 at Abbey Road
- Vintage King: Coles 4038 history
- Wikipedia: Coles 4038
Gear in this post: Coles 4038
-- I mix rock, indie, punk, electronic, acoustic and Americana records. Got songs that need finishing? Here's how it works.
