Other web Sites
Harmonica Blues  Harmonica Amps
Harmonica Links Harmonica Pages
• Archives Home
• Years
 · 1992
 · 1993
 · 1994
 · 1995
 · 1996
 · 1997 		 · 1998
 · 1999
 · 2000
 · 2001
 · 2002
 · 2003
 
Web HarpL
Ebay Searches:
Amps:
Microphones:
Effects:
Harmonicas and Gear:
Harmonica Music and Instruction:

 

 

Harp-L Archives

[Previous Message] [Next Message]
[Previous in Thread] [Next in Thread]
[Start of Thread] [End of Thread]

From: Alec Drachman
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 08:36:52 +0000
Subject: Re: Amps/mics

Rich Lyons wrote:
>
> At 04:40 PM 1/14/98 -0500, Steve.Levi~race.com wrote:
>
> >Is that a circle of fifths arrangement?
>
> Man, and I already quit drinking!
>
> Here is the harp content....
>
> My question is about amps. I see that vintage amps or the sonny Jr. or
> Sonny Jr. II are popular, some more so than others. With the cost of these,
> it would be very easy to buy a super clean power amp, latch it to a studio
> clean speaker, and use digital equipment for distortion and the like. This
> way, you could tweak the distortion and feature mixes any way you want for
> any song you want, and always have "perfect" sound. I am new to harps
> (starting to get pretty clean single notes, except the draw 4, which sounds
> horrible... is it a nightmare note, or am I doing something wrong?) but
> know sound equipment pretty well. Has anyone tried this approach, and what
> were the results.

Yes. Some players do use this approach. Madcat Ruth is one that
immediately comes to mind. He gets a beautiful tone - but then he'd get
great tone playing through two coffee cans and a piece of string.
However, I think when you add up all the components in his rack it would
cost considerably more than most vintage amps (perhaps excluding an
original '59 Bassman), the Sonny Jr., etc.

Draw 4 shouldn't be any harder than draw 3 or Draw 5 - perhaps your
harmonica isn't adjusted properly. Have you tried it on more than one
harp? Although Special 20's are my favorite harps, there seem to be many
on this list that feel that Lee Oskars have the most consistent quality
so you might try one of these.
>
> Also, I saw a harp mic that looked like a T and the top of the T clipped to
> the harp and had a wire out of the bottom of the T. Does anyone know what
> this is, and what to expect to pay for such an animal? I played in church
> the other night, and people loved it (Amazing Grace, straight G harp). I'd
> like to mic it a little better, and this would be trick, providing it isn't
> some special mic that will cost more than building a custom small-block for
> my Corvette (It's old, but I'm more high tech than vintage on it too!).
>
I think you are describing the "Strnad mic". They aren't terribly
expensive but I've never used one so I'll let someone else tell you
about it. You can check them out at any of the harmonica suppliers
web-sites (Kevins Harps, F&R Farrells, Harp City, etc.)

Alec