Boutique microphone company, Ear Trumpet Labs (ETL) has introduced a new limited edition Dark Edwina, the first of its kind from an artist collaboration with Dobro player Josh Swift.
The company’s top-selling microphone gets a makeover in a sleek black finish that offers a different styling than their signature vintage look, with the same audio quality. Dobro player and member of premier Bluegrass group Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Josh Swift came to ETL founder Philip Graham with the idea of doing a solid color Edwina while both were attending the IBMA’s in 2017. While Graham had not explored a single color microphone before, a number of the microphones in the ETL product line are inspired by artists, thus making it a natural progression to work together.
The idea for a black Edwina came from Swift after he had designed his own signature Beard guitar in a dark finishing. The Edwina’s brass and silver pieces were a tad flashy for his taste, but he loved every other aspect of the microphone. Swift and Graham brainstormed some options for the finishing to put a new spin on the physical aesthetic.
The Edwina parts got their dark coloring hand-processed at Cold Spring Enterprises, a gunsmith in Bristol, Tennessee, using a technique called Cerakote that puts an extremely thin, durable black ceramic finish on metal. This process is mainly used for firearms customization, which speaks to its durability.
The Dark Edwina is now available for a first run of 10 units, with a limit on 50 units priced at $625.
