K&M 23560 Microphone Bar with 5/8' Locking Screws (Black)

The other reviewer is correct. The knurled handscrews actually separate from the main section of the 5/8" thread bolt! They do seem extremely difficult to unscrew but they are designed to do this. There are two flat sections on the knurled bolt shafts which are perfect for needle nose pliers. The hard part is putting enough force on the plastic handscrew to loosen up. It will seem as though you might break it. Keep going.

I almost sent this back (as some have said they did) until I realized that you have to REMOVE the six black plastic knobs (kind of hard to do the first time; may require pliers) and mount your mics with the bar turned "upside down" (smooth flat side DOWN, side rails facing up, if that makes sense). Otherwise, no matter how hard you tighten the six metal & plastic knob fasteners, it will be too loose. And, again, the removable knobs were SO tight that I thought they were epoxied on or something. In the end, I was able to mount three pairs of mics just fine, including heavy Rode NTR ribbon mics. It all felt secure and I hope to use this K&M mic bar for years to come.

I read the reviews on here, but I didn't think it would have an effect on my mics. I was wrong and my mic mounts don't fit at all. I am returning my item, and I have to pay an .11 shipping fee. I suppose I could stick rubber washers underneath my mic holders, but I rather just get a proper AB bar.

Very well built, strong, lite. Very reasonable price. Only wish the locking screws were shorter -- most of my shock mounts are deep enough to lock down, but, say, a Shure mic clip is too shallow for the screws to grip the bar.

This bar is annoying. The stamped steel construction is fine and it seems well manufactured, just poorly engineered. The lock screws will fall out without a lock nut (during storage and transport), but when you put on a lock nut, you can't tighten down the lock screw to the bar. So that doesn't work. You'll have to carry an extra bag for the lock screws and be sure that your mic mounts are compatible. This is an important point. In order to succeed with this bar, your mic mounts must have deep enough thread to allow the lock screw to press against the opposite side of the bar. Some of the mounts I have from Schoeps, Neumann, AKG, and Rycote will work but at least a two different varieties (1 stock, 1 shockmount) from Shure simply bottom out and are left spinning. That was particularly disappointing to me because I had planned on using an array with Shure A53M shockmounts. To use this relatively inexpensive bar for my intentions is going to require the purchase of several hundred dollars worth of new mounts. The system needs to be re-engineered. This product is a little disappointing coming from K&M which usually has pretty good products.

The quality of the materials used for the product is good, but at first I had the same problem that others have reported about not being able to tighten the locking screws enough to get a secure fit between my mic clips and the bar. It seemed that the 5/8"-27 (standard mic stand) threaded insert on the locking screw was running into a limit (in all of the mic clips that I tried) before it went far enough in to close the gap between the clip and the mic bar. I tried using some washers to fill the gap between the mic clips and the bar, but that did not solve the problem. The solution that worked well for me was to thread the K&M locking screws into Atlas Sound LO-2B(E) Quick Release fittings. The threaded barrel on the LO-2B is deep enough to allow the K&M locking screws to penetrate further and get a snug fit against the mic bar. The threading process was a bit stiff at first, and required some effort to achieve a sufficiently tight fit, but by working the screws in and out a few times, the tightening process became easier and smoother. Using the LO-2BE (black version) can provide a good color match with the bar. While this solution adds some additional cost, the convenience of the quick release fittings has benefit. The On-Stage QK-2B or C is a slightly less expensive alternative, and would probably work well too, but I have not tried them yet. There are also other alternatives in the quick release mount category that might also work.