Copperphone

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The Placid Audio Copperphone is a hand crafted specialty microphone designed and built by The Polyphonic Spree bassist Mark Pirro. The Copperphone uses components from vintage communications equipment as well as a mechanical filtering device to achieve a limited bandwidth frequency response similar to that of AM radio and the nostalgic sound of the early days of recording.

On August 7th, 2004, the Copperphone made and unusual appearance in news headlines when it was mistaken for a pipe bomb as it passed through security scanners at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Brian Teasley, percussion player of The Polyphonic Spree, was on his way home after a tour and had a Copperphone packed in his luggage. Due to the microphones suspicious appearance and internal wiring, Teasley's luggage was held back by TSA officials and the terminal was shut down. The bag was retrieved by the bomb squad using a robot and later 'disarmed' by blasting the contents of the bag with a water cannon.

Teasley was unaware of the incident until he arrived at his residence in Birmingham, Alabama where he was approached and questioned by members of the FBI. Eventually the facts were confirmed that the device back in Dallas was not a pipe bomb but was indeed a microphone. Amazingly, Brian Teasley's Copperphone survived the water blasting and continued to work properly.^[1]