While amp simulators are coming down in price and sound great, don't overlook a cheap used amp. Many guitar players dislike the old band master and bassman amps from the 70s (not to be confused with the holy grail amp, a tweed bassman, totally different amp.) These amps sound fine for harp if you want to play clean and can be had for real cheap. They last forever and the only tweaking you need is to turn down the treble and make sure the bright switch is off.
Once you get comfortable playing live, and can get a good sound out of one of these amps, talk to your amp tech. A change in tubes, or a simple modification back to black face specifications can turn your amp into an expensive boutique amp for the same cost as an amp simulator.
For people who don't understand amplifier jargon-silver face Fenders were built in the late 60s early 70s. They have point to point wiring (not circuit boards but actual wires. Supposedly this makes an amplifier more reliable)and tubes but many people feel they don't sound as good as the older 60s Fender amps-the black face amps. Tweed amplifiers were built in the 50s. Generally the amp fanatics like the 50s and 60s amplifiers. To me, the difference is sublte. Most people would disagree with that. To get an amplifier to distort, generally you turn the volume up past 4. On a 50 watt Bassman, turning the amp past 2 is painful. Therefore a lot of the subtle nuances of distortion aren't heard.
A POD is a lot lighter than an amp head and speaker. I like wheels on my speaker cabinet.
Rainbow Jimmy http://www.spaceanimals.com http://www.mp3.com/spaceanimals
