Re: [Harp-L] fender bassman ltd again



Bob Maglinte wrote:

----- Original Message ----- From: <TomEHarp@xxxxxxx> To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 1:45 PM Subject: [Harp-L] fender bassman ltd again


i have to say this,i've only had it a week and i just can't get that LW sound
like i do out of me 1953 danelectro,i thought i would i don't get it.i think
its going back to the store.



tommy in ct.


Hi Tom,
The only way to do that comes from your own personal ACOUSTIC tone and chops, and that ALWAYS has been the REAL secret, and it NEVER HAS BEEN THE GEAR!!!!! Many of those old blues masters, truth be told, really didn't give a crap about gear as long as they got their sound across. You''ll have this same problem no matter what gear you use, and relying on gear for tone is a HUGE mistake. Whenever I saw Walter Horton, which was at least 3 or 4 times a year during the 70's, all he was using was borrowed amps and NOT ONCE did he EVER fool with amp settings or anything else, and guess what?? He ALWAYS sounded like himself, and when I first saw him at the long defunct Bunratty's in Boston back in 1975, he got the same sound out the PA as he did out of the amp, which right then and there taught me a huge lesson that too many harp players flat out NEVER seem to understand, and he was a master of tone control and variety of tonal colors. I've seen people who have never spent enough time honing their acoustic tone and chops gripe so much about gear, and then when someone else plays that very same rig, not even making ANY adjustments to it, making the same gear sound amazing. As long as any harp player continues to believe the MISTAKEN notion that ANY piece of gear will ever make themselves sound like any of their heroes, the cold, hard, brutal truth is that it just isn;t going to happen without doing the kind of SERIOUS woodshedding necessary to achieve the real source of tone that comes from you, the acoustic chops and tone, and nothing else but.


Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: http://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/


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I think tone starts before you pick up a microphone, but I think gear makes a difference too. I go regularly to a jam hosted by R. J. Mischo. I don't think anyone would argue that his tone is poor. He plays through the pa and through an amp. The sound is different. Either way he has a big fat sound, but they're not the same. I think the differences come from it being easier to get one kind of sound from the amp and another from the pa.

If gear made no difference at all, maybe the ideal setup would be the Radio Shack 35 watt solid state pa amp and old hi-fi coax speaker I bought on Ebay for a total under $50. Acoustic guitar (with a preamp) sounds great through it. I should try a $3.00 tape recorder mic through it for harp. <g>

Every horn player has a favorite instrument and mouthpiece and may use different ones for different things. Gear won't make you sound good unless you're good to start with, but it can give you more directions to go in.

You've got to remember that Walter Horton could darned near play harmonica without even touching it. <g>




-- Hear Barrelhouse Solly on the internet--that's me

http://www.soundclick.com/barrelhousesolly




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