[Harp-L] re: why use effects?

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

rainbowjimmy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:
"Experimenting with effects can be fun but most stomp boxes are made 
for guitar. Especially if you use a hot mic like a Green Bullet, you can
have too hot a signal, giving you a lousy sound--lousy meaning harsh,
lots of noise, and brittle. Try before you buy."

This is all true.  It's also true that an inexpensive preamp, like the
ART Tube MP (now about $60-70 new), or the Behringer clone based on the
tube MP, will generally solve this problem at reasonable cost. Just put
the preamp between the mic and the effects chain. The effects chain now
gets a line-level signal that it likes, and every effect in the chain
sounds much better.

The distortion boxes will still not work brilliantly, though.  See my
previous comments re: amp modelers for the fix to that one. 

Regards, Richard Hunter 
hunterharp.com