Bespeco MS11 Hybrid Microphone Boom Stand

Bespeco MS11 Hybrid Microphone Boom Stand

The Bespeco MS11 is a professional microphone boom stand for studio and live work, built as a hybrid design that mixes metal and engineered plastic components where each does its job best. A boom stand has to do more than hold a microphone up: it has to hold it at an angle, over a guitar, a keyboard, a drum or a lectern, and stay exactly where it was set while the performer moves around it. The MS11 is built around that requirement, with a counterweighted boom, a clutch height adjustment and a heavy composite base.

Bespeco finishes the MS11 in black and dark grey. The stand is supplied without a microphone or microphone clip, which are chosen separately for the microphone in use; the MS11’s job is the support, the reach and the stability underneath them. Note that this is the MS11, a separate model from the MS11EVO.

Key features

• Boom stand for studio and live microphone placement
• Hybrid construction mixing metal and plastic materials for strength and stability
• Clutch height adjustment covered with soft-touch, anti-skid rubber
• Boom joint in two parts: loaded nylon and zinc alloy
• Counterweight in loaded nylon with a detachable pair of zinc alloy weights
• Base in two parts: loaded nylon and zinc alloy
• Knob covered with soft-touch natural rubber
• Anti-skid rubber feet shaped to reduce vibration transmission

Balancing the boom

A boom arm is a lever, and a heavy microphone at full reach will tip or slowly sink a stand that is not balanced. The MS11’s counterweight answers that directly, and its detachable pair of zinc alloy weights lets the user add or remove ballast to suit the microphone actually fitted: a heavy studio condenser on a shock mount asks for more counterweight than a light dynamic vocal microphone. Balanced correctly, the boom holds its angle without the joint being forced overtight, which also makes small position changes quicker during a session.

Grip, joints and feet

The details that decide whether a stand is pleasant to use daily are the ones hands touch. The MS11’s height clutch is covered in soft-touch anti-skid rubber, so it can be gripped and released firmly even mid-performance. The boom joint combines loaded nylon with zinc alloy, pairing a light, tough moulding with a metal part where the load concentrates, and the adjustment knob is covered with soft-touch natural rubber for the same reason. At floor level, the anti-skid rubber feet keep the stand planted and their shape is designed to attenuate vibration travelling up from the floor, which helps keep footfall and stage rumble out of the recording.

In the studio and on stage

In the studio the MS11 covers the standard boom jobs: vocals with the microphone angled down toward the singer, acoustic guitar from above or the side, overhead and drum work, and amplifier miking with the boom reaching over the cabinet. Live, the same reach lets a vocalist play guitar or keyboards without the upright pole standing between them and the microphone. The counterweight system is particularly useful with heavier microphones and shock mounts, where a basic stand’s boom would creep.

Setting it up

Set the base on a level floor with the feet fully in contact. Fit the microphone and its holder, add or remove the detachable counterweights until the boom roughly balances, then set height with the clutch and angle with the boom joint, keeping the microphone’s weight over the base’s footprint as far as the playing position allows. Route the microphone cable down the boom and the upright with enough slack for adjustment, and test the position with a gentle push before the session starts. Support the microphone whenever a lock is loosened, and lower the boom before moving the stand.

The MS11 is a support only: it carries no audio signal. Microphone, holder or clip, shock mount and cable are separate items, and the holder’s thread should be checked against the stand, with an adapter used where the microphone’s mount requires one.