Re: [Harp-L] Re: Little Walter

Rick In Davis <rickindavis@xxxxxxxxx> · Sat, 8 Apr 2006 09:18:15 -0700 (PDT)

I don't think I said solid state amps can sound the same - or "as good as" - the typical tube harp amp.  I clearly said they sound different (not better), and different is good.  The problem with the typical tube harp amps is that they are typical...  Everybody has pretty much the same tone. 

  Little Walter Jacobs was certainly not a gear head.  He used what was available in the 40s and 50s to move the music forward.  I'm sure some players of the era thought his sound was crude and raunchy.  I'll bet the Piedmont style players thought the whole electrical thing was pretty blasphemous.  If Little Walter were playing today and still had the same pioneering spirit, he would take that typical tone and move it forward, just like he did 50 yeats ago.  I think he'd experiment with digital processing and solid state.  It has come a long way while the harp purists (me included) weren't paying attention.

  Besides, the only people in the audience who can even tell you are blowing through a boo-teek old-school fifteen-hundred-dollar-replica-of-a-hundred-dollar-amp are the other harp players, and there are damn few of us.  And every good harp player I've ever met always thinks his tone is better than the next guy, no matter what gear he has.  

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