Re: [Harp-L] Re: Little Walter

[Joel Fritz <jfritz666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

There were players before LW who played horn lines, e.g. Robert Cooksey, 
Blues Birdhead and Rhythm Willie.  LW combined jump blues and R&B horn 
sounds with distortion and it was really cool.  Regardless of who played 
horn lines first, LW and T Bone Walker are the inventors of "modern" 
blues.  A lot of people have had their own approach, but it's always 
been based on what LW and T Bone Walker did.

IMHO the solid state vs tube thing, given what signal processing  can 
do, is a non issue.   I'd be very curious to see what a double blind 
test of tube amp vs. solid state  would show. 

fjm wrote:

> Chris, the signal processing added to the LW tracks occurred in the 
> studio and was done by the recording engineer.  While Mr. Jacobs was 
> clearly a ground breaking player in the harmonica arena his innovation 
> was more about the harmonicas role in the band.  Meaning he played 
> more like a horn player than anyone who came before him.  His 
> amplified tone being more an accident of the times he resided in and 
> his acoustic tone than anything else.
>
> Your objection to Sonny's conclusions is certainly valid in that it's 
> a subjective call.  Personally I wouldn't dismiss out of hand an 
> amplifier set up that I hadn't ever heard or tried.  I've never heard 
> a solid state amplifier that really sounded like tubes to me but I 
> don't completely dismiss the possibility that one could be made.  
> Sonny seems like very much a process equals product kind of guy and in 
> terms of replicating that certain mid 50's sound he sure seems to have 
> gotten some things right in terms of the process.  Me personally, I'm 
> on a different road musically.  I do play through a very small 4 watt 
> tube amplifier but I use a rack mount digital effects processor on the 
> input and I really love that octave thing Mr. Ricci uses on the Live 
> Mexicali Blues download.
>
> In praise of an amplified sound that originates in a solid state 
> device I have to say Madcat's most recent sound is just amazing.  I 
> also have heard Billy Branch and Lee Oskar play through solid state 
> amps and sound just great.  fjm
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l

--
Hear Barrelhouse Solly--that's me--on the web.
http://www.soundclick.com/barrelhousesolly

And now...What everyone's been clamoring for, pictures of the cats.
http://ratemykitten.com/my/?gallery=willie_mctell