[Harp-L] Re: fender bassman ltd again

[Ray Beltran <raybeltran@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 3/16/05 2:10 PM, BBQ Bob wrote:

> 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!!!!!

Right on, Bob. Say, maybe it's just me, but...haven't we covered this
before?


> 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.


This whole thing ever since the LTD came out...I don't understand. 12AY7 in
V1...that's all you need. And that's just going back to the original tube
configuration. If you gotta tinker with the thing any more than that, the
amp ain't your problem!


> 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

You mean he didn't switch out preamp tubes? ;)

> 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.

That's it. The honest truth. Don't shoot the messenger...that's just the way
it is.

Ray.
-- 
www.resgraphics.com/music