Re: [Harp-L] Performance setup - hearing and feedback

[Jesse <jvboden@xxxxxxxxx>]

one thing I forgot to mention, and that others have now addressed in
different ways, is that I also use an EQ pedal. I am just guessing, without
knowing, that you are playing blues-based music and would like to just go to
the club, put your amp on the stage, plug and play. honestly, unless you are
a touring pro or in an unusual situation with the band you are jamming with,
that is mostly what you will need. I apologize if your situation is
completely different - but if it is not - here's what I use and my feedback
troubles are over: a small pedalboard (can be homemade or buy the smallest
Pedaltrain) with (in order), a Boss 7 band EQ, a Rocktron Hush, a reverb
pedal (you wont need that with your Fender) and a Lone Wolf Harp Delay,
which is said to help with feedback as well. that and setting the amp
farther behind and to the side of you (no worries, you will still hear it)
and getting it off the floor works like magic. I play a lot of chord
and accompanying back-up riffs in my little group, which is quite loud, and
have no problem hearing any of that stuff, which I think was your main
problem. A good harp amp helps tremendously, of course, but a lot of great
players have used Fenders - Paul Butterfield, Alan (Blind Owl) Wilson, just
to name a couple.

a friend of mine, a pro player, says he uses two Rocktron Hush pedals - one
before and one after his delay and that's it. his feedback problems are all
but non-existent. all of those pedals are easily purchased at
musiciansfriend, eBay or at the Lone Wolf site for the delay.

yes, you can get crazy with this, buy serious EQ rack units, etc, and a good
sound man could help, but if your experience is anything like mine, you want
to show up, set up in 15 minutes and play - many times that's all you get -
some clubs are restaurants, and cannot have you doing a sound check during
meals and don't open before dinner - other times you may be just coming to
the gig straight from your day job - you might be sharing the bill with one
or several other bands and have to scramble to set up the second the last
band tears down - you just never know - nice to be able to feel confident
that you will be able to blast away, sound as good as you can and be free of
feedback without a lot of tweaking, relying on somebody else (sound men vary
in tolerance levels) and so on.

If you are lucky enough to have a sound man, which I sometimes am, he/she
can just mic your amp, which is already set to your ideal tone and volume
without feedback, and viola! ...the harp sound you like, mixed perfectly, in
a flash. Pedal board, amp, mic, cord - bingo.

lots of people to check out on this subject, most of the greats who have
instructional DVD's and books out there address this feedback issue - let me
know what you find that works for you - always ready to learn something
new.

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 5:29 PM, Sean Murphy <taser8@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I've been taking lessons for about a year and a half now, and have been
> asked by a friend to sit in with his band a couple of times for gigs. I've
> encountered some issues I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on!
>
> The first time I played, I ran my bullet mic right into the PA, which had
> some monitors at the front of the "stage". I could hear myself okay when I
> was really cutting loose on solo-like bits, but when I was trying to just
> provide backup I found that I couldn't hear myself hardly at all! I hadn't
> practiced with the band and consider myself to be still at a beginner
> level,
> so I didn't want to stink up my friend's band's music so I did a lot of
> just
> standing around, but I would love to have been able to provide some backing
> accompaniment.
>
> The same friend asked me to sit in with them again recently, and this time
> I
> brought an amp (my fender guitar amp - not ideal, but it's something); I
> figured I could set that up behind me and mic it, and have it function as
> more of a monitor so that perhaps I could hear myself better. It worked to
> some extent but I then found that I was getting huge amounts of feedback
> out
> of the amp! I ended up having to turn the mic down so far that I found
> myself back in the same situation - once the band started really thumping
> along I really couldn't hear myself except when I was really cutting loose!
>
> So I wanted to poll the list - I'd love to hear suggestions, observations,
> etc. on how to set up right, mic'ing an amp, etc. - any random thoughts or
> pointers are appreciated!
>
> Thanks!
> Sean
>