[Harp-L] Re: Bass Harmonica - advice

[Maka McMahon <makamcmahon@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Blunt,

There's not much around for the Bass harp.  The Smith's book is the easiest to get hold of - one of the specialist music stores still sells it (Google should find which one - my memory is not helping today).

I went cheap to start with as I wasn't sure how useful the Bass would be. I've got a Swan  - two rows, two octaves in C.  It is of course all blow and takes a lot of air to shift those long reeds at the low end.  Not much cutting power, so you need to be amplified in anything but the smallest, quietest of rooms, and you have to use a mic on a stand.  The layout is pretty easy to get the hang of - like a piano keyboard with the white keys on the bottom row and the black (plus fillers) on the top row.

The Swan is not the sturdiest of Basses (its OK), but it is significantly less expensive than the Hohners or Suzukis and does a reasonable job (or a very good job on a 'bangs for the buck' basis).

But there is another option......

The Digitech RP series of effects pedals have a great two octave step down and that lets you play bass lines with a normal diatonic.  A new RP355 and Richard Hunter's patch set for harmonica will cost less than a Hohner Bass and open a whole new world of harp effects.  I've got a slightly older RP350, but it makes some great bass noises.  I use 4 x 8" bass quad boxes as the speaker(s) for my PAs, so either the mono (35w) or stereo (200w/side) PAs make bass (and harp) via the RP sound good.

Not sure if the Harmonicats would freak at the thought of 'bass by effects' (George Miklas may be reading this!) and it certainly lacks the visual impact of a Bass harp, but the RP355 would be my recommendation, if only because making a diatonic into a bass is one of the myriad of clever things it can do.

Richard Hunter knows much more about this than me and I'd recommend seeking him out if you're interested in the RP option

Cheers
Maka