Bruce Bartlett, owner/engineer
Designers Bruce Bartlett and Steve Mills have 57 years of combined engineering experience at Shure and Crown International. They started Bartlett Microphones LLC in 2009. Their goals are (1) to employ local people to hand-craft the microphones in Elkhart, Indiana, and (2) to use USA-made parts. Bruce and Steve are committed to design and make products of very high quality at a fair price, and to offer excellent customer service and support -- direct from the designers.
Bruce Bartlett has a life-long fascination with all things audio. As a Crown microphone engineer for 26 years, Bruce Bartlett developed Crown's line of microphones including the industry-standard PCC
A member of AES and Syn Aud Con, Bruce handles a wide range of freelance audio activities as a recording engineer (studio and live), sound system designer, microphone designer, sound mixer, audio technical writer, mic application engineer and audio consultant. Bruce is a musician and has composed about 40 tunes. He played bass or drums in the pit band for Carousel, West Side Story, and Godspell. Bruce plays upright bass in an old-time string band. As an audio journalist, Bruce has written about 900 articles and 8 books on audio topics.
Click here to go to the Bartlett Recording website.
Steve Mills, co-owner/engineer
Steve’s experience in project management, product integration, and design is a perfect match for Bartlett Microphones along with his desire to design and build high quality microphones in the USA. Steve has extensive experience in customer interface and application. Along with Steve’s engineering experience, he runs a home based audio production studio.
Tom Lininger, our mentor
Another big microphone developed by Tom was the EV 643, the world's largest shotgun mic, used in Presidential news conferences. Tom also was responsible for the RE-55 omni dynamic mic.
Other microphones he helped to develop at EV include the RE-50 (shock-mounted 635A), and the Variable-D line of dynamic mics. Tom also was involved in starting EV's line of electret condenser mics, such as the CS-15.
While at EV, Tom wrote an AES paper on microphone transient response. With Lou Burroughs, Tom studied the acoustical comb filtering caused by phase interference between multiple microphones, or caused by the combination of direct and reflected sound at a microphone. This research resulted in the Mic Mouse, a microphone foam mount for stage floors. Its principle is used today in directional boundary microphones such as the Crown PCC series.
He later worked in Microphone Marketing at EV until August 1979. Then, after a stint as a hardware store manager, Tom came to Crown International in 1983 to serve as Microphone Department Manager.
The microphone group at Crown felt like family with Tom at the helm. He took great pride in his company, its products, and its employees. While he gave us freedom to work on our own, he let us know what had to be done. We've never had such a congenial yet competent manager. He had a hand in every microphone in Crown's extensive line, and made working here fun. We appreciated Tom's wide experience and considerable skill in shepherding product designs through engineering and production into the marketplace.
Tom enjoyed working closely with superstars such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Garth Brooks to create microphones that satisfied them. Yet Tom could, and did, befriend anyone who crossed his path. He was a warm, big-hearted man with a zest for life. We hope he approves our new venture!
