The MXL CR89 is a wide cardioid pattern only mic with a 6-micron gold-sputtered diaphragm that is center-terminated and features a FET-based low noise head amp circuit. It has very a low proximity effect; I found when I got it up close to my vocalist--I got a clear sound with presence and just a slight bass buildup--not the huge bump I normally hear with singers get close to other cardioid condenser mics.

The CR's large, beefy body reduces microphone body resonances and its broad cardioid pickup pattern is perfect for singers who move around while singing on a studio microphone--there is less of a noticeable change in sound caused by their movement.

I then put the CR89 on my Fender Blues Junior amp and tuned up my Strat and got ready to play! No problem here either--I just cranked back the microphone gain on my Sunset Sound S1P Mic Pre-Amp down to about 10 dB of gain (I was at 30 dB for my singer) and got a solid sound--the recording sounded like the amp does.