Subject: Re: [Harp-L] cheapo amp?

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

In response to Richard Hunter,
 
"<....My feeling is  that I'd rather practice with a relatively  cheapo
Amp <and mic just in case I do something to screw it up, and put  what
money I <do have to spend into what I think of as "quality" gear at  this
point  - <the harmonicas themselves."
 
.....was my statement, not Andrew's.  
 
and then Richard responds:
 
"The only point in buying gear, at any price, is to get something  that
sounds good. "Cheap" does not necessarily equate to "bad sounding."  
There's plenty of good cheap gear; in the 35-plus years I've  been
playing, gear has never cost less or sounded better.  But if the  only
consideration is price, there's a good chance that the buyer will end  up
with something that doesn't sound very good with harp. That's  why
there's no point in buying any old 10W guitar amp that happens to be  on
sale cheap.  Most guitar amps don't sound very good with harp, and  with
the really cheap ones, it's hard to modify them so they do. And an  amp
that doesn't sound good has two big problems: 1) it's not inspiring  to
play through it, and 2) when other people hear you playing through  it,
you don't sound very good to them, either. 

It should be possible  to find a decent used small (5-10W) class A tube
amp in the neighborhood of  $150-$200. As an alternative, an inexpensive
but very functional amp modeler  like the Digitech RP50 can be bought for
about $70, and you could add a  10-15W keyboard amp to that for
$100-$150.  You'll have to put in some  hours with the amp modeler to get
a good sound, but there are plenty of good  sounds in there.  

It's not easy to find something that sounds  really good with harp for
much less than that. And if it doesn't sound really  good, I just
wouldn't buy it.  

Regards, Richard  Hunter"
 
....much obliged.  That is my feeling too.  I've never equated  "cheap" (I 
prefer inexpensive) with "bad" either.  (I'm one of the  world's best shoppers 
<g>)  I'd also heard offlist  from  someone else who believes as you do and 
uses similar equipment, but I certainly  appreciate all the information I can get 
and your taking the trouble to educate  those of us who have no knowledge of 
gear and want to start off slowly at  first.  
 
Something else I'd realized on reading many of the back and forth  responses, 
especially those mentioning keeping an Amp for "50 years", was that a  lot of 
younger players seem to assume that a "newbie" is always young.   Ain't 
necessarily so.  I played harmonica as a child and then didn't play  for 30 years.  
I'm no kid, and while I doubt keeping an Amp that long  would land me in the 
Guinness Book of World Records, it'd still be quite an  achievement if I was 
able to raise harp to lips then....let alone hauling around  an Amp.
 
Elizabeth