Re: tone in a box

["IronMan Mike Curtis" <ironman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

For harp, they might be able to affect resonance and such after the fact (or
maybe not, because as we've discussed ad infinitum, tone is multifaceted),
but a player with weak tone (and acoustic volume) will still have trouble
with feedback.  There is simply *no* substitute for raw tone, and there
probably will never be.

Besides, in the time it takes you to earn the megabucks such a device would
cost, you can develop your own tone.

Even if you *could* buy "tone in a box", they will never be able to
synthesize *taste* and *technique*.  A hack will still sound like a hack.
You can strain Little/Big Walters harp through the cheeziest little tiny
tinny apeaker and it will still sound great.

This happens to be a great time to be a harp player with great tone and
technique.  There simply isn't *that* much competition.  Even though
harmonica is played by record numbers of people, the general tendency these
days is to look outside of oneself for tone - and that is NOT where it lies.
Unscrupulous merchants do absolutely nothing to dispel the notion, and prey
mercilessly upon the unwary and credulous, whom I suppose are lazy and in a
manner of speaking thus deserving of being parted from their money (well, at
least some unscrupulous merchants think so).  They will spend bazillions of
dollars, and yet never sound 1/10th as good as a great player - no - let's
make that a good solid fundamental player with good solid basic chops and
tone - through a piece of junk mic and cheap amp.

>    Jeez, NOW I can turn my Bass voice into Andy Gibb, Neil Young, Tiny
Tim.
> smo-j

Try helium ;-)


- -IronMan Mike Curtis Band  http://www.ironmancurtis.com *Southland Blues
Magazine http://www.SouthlandBlues.com TU 8pm Starboard Attitude/Redondo
Santa Monica 3rd St Promenade, various times - email my cellphone (2 lines
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