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Budget carbon fibre boom pole


markfarrowaudiopost

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The Falcon pole is interesting, though at less than 12 feet it wouldn't work for a lot of boom operators who work with a long pole. It seems to meet their stated goal, the lowest cost carbon fiber fishpole available, but the hope is that it has something else going for it other than just being carbon fiber.

 

Also, it is not cabled and for those wanting an internal cable, done properly it does involve more than just solder and connectors as they suggest.

 

I would love to hear from someone who has actually used one --- I would not want to be the first.

 

post-1-0-35678200-1362926629_thumb.jpg

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I don't think it's internally cabled

 

As we know, internal cabling (coiled cable) adds some weight to a pole. At this point (back pain!) I might be down for an external cable. Also, internal cables are a major pain. Especially with blimps, it's hard to keep the boom pole under control because my hands are just not very strong when tightening/loosening the ktek dials. 

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Just looking at the mounting point gives me pause. It's a regular threaded 5/8" mic mount (they have an adapter in the photo) and if you compare it to others, it looks like its not as well designed - IE not designed at all, just shoved in the top of a carbon fiber tube.

 

I'm not sure I'd be happy hanging a heavier setup on that, but that's just me. I have never even thought about such a thing with other poles (vdb, ambient, k-tek).

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Hey there!

I started the other thread a while ago...and if you care to know what I ended up doing...I got a 9f internal K-tek boom. The reason was because the guy from Falcon poles never got back to me...I guess customer service plays a big part of this game...

Also for the records...I bought my Ktek used and had a little issue with the pole (now is fixed)...I posted the problem here at JW and Dave (from K-tek) offered me to fix it at no cost.

Thanks JW, thanks K-tek!

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Hey there!

I started the other thread a while ago...and if you care to know what I ended up doing...I got a 9f internal K-tek boom. The reason was because the guy from Falcon poles never got back to me...I guess customer service plays a big part of this game...

Also for the records...I bought my Ktek used and had a little issue with the pole (now is fixed)...I posted the problem here at JW and Dave (from K-tek) offered me to fix it at no cost.

Thanks JW, thanks K-tek!

That's a very important point that I've seen stressed repeatedly around here and until you/we/I/one receives the kind of service that these companies provide you don't know what you're missing.

 

Most recently for me, over the last little white the rubber bumper at the bottom of my k-tek CCR base started getting odd, very squishy and almost like it was melting/disintigrating though it had been babied. After visiting my dealer for another item, but having the opportunity to manhandle a k-tek on display, I thought I'd ask the company what to do.

 

I sent K-tek a note and a kind Mr. Fisk (our very own) told me he'd mail one out to me at no charge - the exchange from first contact to conclusion was over the span of just an hour or two.

 

Wow.

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Like I said in the linked to previous thread. I have one of those Lux poles and I'd be more than happy to show it to anyone that wants to come by the shop and check it out. I'll also give you the free nickle tour of our factory, and if we have time, I'll even buy you lunch! 

 

I learned by dealing with Manfred when I worked at Coffey that customer service is everything. He would do things for me that no other manufacturer would, and I try to continue that tradition. I say it all the time at the office "What would Manfred do?"

 

We are nothing without our customers, and we appreciate every one of you. It's not just me. It's Brenda, Karen, and everyone in the shop that makes everything happen. K-Tek is probably the most positive working environment I've ever been in. We have a lot of fun doing what we do, and we are really excited to show you guys some new stuff at NAB. 

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The Falcon pole is interesting, though at less than 12 feet it wouldn't work for a lot of boom operators who work with a long pole. It seems to meet their stated goal, the lowest cost carbon fiber fishpole available, but the hope is that it has something else going for it other than just being carbon fiber.

Also, it is not cabled and for those wanting an internal cable, done properly it does involve more than just solder and connectors as they suggest.

I would love to hear from someone who has actually used one --- I would not want to be the first.

Falcon budget.jpg

Ask for one for a review

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Carbon fibre poles are great, I guess what I don't understand is how I can buy carbon fibre bike for the same price as a pole

Carbon fibre poles are great, I guess what I don't understand is how I can buy carbon fibre bike for the same price as a pole

 

Do you mean just the frameset?

 

While you can get a cheap (and good) frameset in CF (since most are made in Taiwan and/or China - even for the big guns) you can't get a quality built up bike in CF for the price of a quality pole.

 

Buying a quality pole from a Western country is more like buying a bike from a hand-crafted frame builder (Naked and True North are examples that come to mind) since the tubes may come from afar, but the craftsmanship on the other parts and product is more "local."

 

So the CF bikes you speak of are probably compared to the Pole in the OP not the poles most of us use.

 

Also, I'll reiterate the later part of this thread about service. You're not just buying a pole, but an infrastructure designed to support the professional. That cheap CF bikes (cheap bikes in general) often don't have the kind of person-on-the-line, solution-in-hand, support you'd get from the top production audio companies (whether it's poles or mixers, or wireless, etc.)

 

But that's just, like, my opinion man. *wink*

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Coming from photography I can say that there are lots of companies out there making carbon fiber tripods and mono-pods that could easily be "re-purposed" as boom poles for the pro audio market. All it would take would be a few mods here and there and you'd have something very work-able. The problem is that those companies don't bother to enter the pro audio market and it's left to people like K-Tek et al to design and build boom poles that are not just "meh" or "okay" but well though out things that are well built and repairable. Sure, they cost more then a mono-pod-with-a-few-tweaks but they're well designed, well made and well supported, so I think that the "extra" money spent is done so because these people are making things that offer specific answers to specific questions. Expensive? Perhaps. Worth the money? Yes.

 

And no, it's not "you get what you pay for", because that happens every time you buy anything, unless you actually don't get what you've paid for in which case you file a claim with UPS...

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I think its all about economies of scale, markfarrowaudiopost. There are more people buying bikes than buying boompoles, I'd say. Each is specialized (see what I did, there) to some degree, but there is a larger market for the bikes, so there you go.

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FWIW, I thought about buying one of these Falcon poles, but held out for a nice used VdB from one of the esteemed members of this forum, and couldn't be happier. No problems with it, and parts and service available from the usual suspects. I don't think you'll get that with the Falcon poles.

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Also for the records...I bought my Ktek used and had a little issue with the pole (now is fixed)...I posted the problem here at JW and Dave (from K-tek) offered me to fix it at no cost.

 

K-Tek is very, very well-known and respected for taking care of their customers. Great service, great quality, a class act down the line.

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