I went to the Harmonica Masterclass Amp Showdown Thursday night. There were a ton of amps. Dennis Gruenling, Gary Smith, and Dave ran through each amp playing both a crystal and CR/CM mic. The three top amps in my opinion were the HarpKing 6x10, Sonny Jr. Cruncher, and the Fender Bassman Reissue from 1990 (not the LTD). My Favorite was the Bassman and that was a surprise. There were a lot of other amps there. Of the small to medium amps the Kalamazoo, Sonny Jr. 1, Fender Princeton (both a tweed 59' and a 70's Silverface) and a Masco were clearly the best amps. continue reading...
It seems that I've come to the conclusion that I need to pick up a good CM or CR mic. I've been playing through a few nice dynamic mics, but, as David says, every blues harp player needs at least one good CM or CR. I have an old Commando, but it seems to my ears to play too bright. I hear many good things about the JT-30 and Shure bullets, although I've yet to test the waters of a mic that big as far as good cupping (I've been using stick mics and an Electro-Voice 638). So, any advice or experiences, models, type elements, etc.? continue reading...
Fairly new to playing amplified harp. I'm currently experimenting with playing through two smaller tube amps with 10-inch speakers, one a late 50s Premier model 110 that had original Rola speaker replaced with a new Patriot "Copperhead" speaker. That one plays on the brighter side. The other amp is a Kalamazoo II that is all original including the speaker. Both amps sound pretty well as is, but I'm wondering what might be good replacement speaker to offer me, a more buttery, and/or grittier and less bright sound on either or both of these amps. continue reading...
relying on David Barretts 22 years of experience and his recommendation..I ordered and just today recieved my Wezo 45...I got the head and small cabinet option 2 X10.....
It doesnt come cheap...$2600....
I already had a Hohner Hoodoo (total waste of money)...a Sonny Jr 1 and a Kendrick 5w Harp amp which is brand new and cost me a ridiculous 1K....
I have only been playing a short while...but....this Wezo makes me sound like David himself...well kind of ..
but it is a pleasure .... and I only have an hour on it!
If you want to sound your best .., then this has got to be it.... continue reading...
Posted Sun, 04/25/2010 - 10:23 by Harp Tech Kinya...
Hello Harmonicats,
I found a wireless solution for those of you who enjoy bullet mic type playing, but feel restricted with cables.
Line 6 known for it's modeling amp technology, recently released their line of wireless (guitar) system. The Relay G30 and G50 are in stomp pedal form factors, and the G90 is rack mountable -- the higher the series number, the farther the wireless range. continue reading...
It's the BOSS eBand JS-8 Audio Player. It's got a lot of the same functions as the Amazing Slow Downer and the Tascam trainers, but it adds a lot of things like backing tracks for all styles of music, recording, guitar pedal effects, and auto-loop functions to make your own backing riffs on the fly.
I have a Tascam CD guitar trainer, but I was thinking about this thing as everything nowadays is in Mp3 anyway.
Here's a quick tip for you. If you use a pedal (such as reverb or delay) that can run on a battery (which almost all of them can)... don't rely on it! ALWAYS use the adapter (that you have to purchase separately sometimes) for the pedal.
What commonly happens is that when the batteries power starts to drain your volume will slowly drop as it does. continue reading...