Sometimes you just want your mic to work again. Our mic mods are really full rebuilds so they are very effective microphone repairs too. No matter what has gone wrong with your mic, chances are the broken bit is being replaced. I often buy “broken – for parts” mics off the interwebs and rebuild them. As long as the body hasn’t been run over by a car (I’ve seen this), the mic can be made whole again and drastically improved over its former stock self.
Most (non-tube) mic problems come down to either the capsule or the circuit board. I replace them both so the chances are pretty good that your dead mic will live again. Someone sent me a dead Studio Projects C1 to see what I could do with. In this case, the capsule was damaged and easily replaced. The circuit in that mic is actually pretty good as-is so we left that alone.
A throw-away cheapo-amazon BM800 came through the door totally non-functional. The board and capsule were junked and we made a lovely transformerless mic with a k47 style capsule which has gone to a good home and gets regular use.
MXL 990s seem to get all the abuse. Of all the mics I’ve modded, these seem to come in the most beat up. Whenever I can find one on ebay or reverb being sold as “broken / for parts”, I jump at it. The most recent one became my very first Transformer-Coupled 990 mod. This mic repair has turned into one of my favorite mics in my collection.