Re: [Harp-L] Acoustic Amplifiers and Pedals etc.

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris <harpsmoke@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<I am still at the stage of learning about being more subtle in my approach to amplification. I wonder if anyone has experience of using not only a <distorting pedal, but also a Boss VE 20 Vocal effects unit as a line fed into a "clean" solid state acoustic guitar amp?
<
<My style is not classic "Chicago" exclusively, maybe even psychedelic with emphasis on chorus and echo.
<

My first comment is that in general I don't think multiFX aimed at vocalists work as well for harmonica as multiFX aimed at guitarists. In particular, the distortion options tend to be less numerous and useful with vocal FX than with guitar FX (and distortion is less useful for harmonica than amp modeling, which is a very different kind of signal processing). So you might want to turn your attention to the various multiFX devices by Boss, Digitech, Line6, etc. aimed at guitarists, and in particular to the devices that offer amp modeling in addition to distortions, modulation FX, etc.

My second comment is that whether you go with a vocalist device or a guitar device, you should plan on spending a fair amount of time getting to know the device.  MultiFX in general are more complex than any single effect device, simply because they do a lot more than any single device--essentially, the multiFX device is giving you a chain of processes to work with.  It takes time to figure out how to make all the various components of the sound work well together, and preset sounds supplied by the manufacturer tend to be hit-or-miss when it comes to harmonica.

You can find out more about my own adventures with multiFX at: http://hunterharp.com/

Regards, Richard Hunter