[Harp-L] Re : analogue delay pedals

["Hurricane Ramón" <party_man1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hurricane Sez :

I love my old timey baby Ibanez PC-40 analog unit , it's a highly sought after delay / flanger / chorus guitar FX unit circa 1970 / 80 something  , it is a killer effects unit for the guitar and doubles up on a harp finely , hard to find nowadays too cause they don't make em hanna mo .

 - - - That said - - - .


I just got a brand spanking new Digitech GNX4 :

Modeling amp & cabinet , FX's / Digital Guitar Workstation 8 channel digital recorder with a really expressive and not so shabby midi drum machine . 

Yep me who uses a hybrid tube / x-sistor guitar amp for both my harp & guitar work for over 14 years ( guitar only last 7 ) .


¿ Why ? 

I thought you'd never ask .

All the banter of Little Walter this and Sonny Boy or Sonny Terry didn't do that or this sounds like my dad can lick your dad stuff on a play ground so lets let jr.high school mentality out of the picture if ya'll please harpers . And that's what made me write this .


Just like all the great style setter harpmen & guitarists or what ever musical axe you wanna swing with , the logical sequence is to seek out and improve the status quo as we all search ( some find and some fail ) to find their " Holy Grail " of their own personal sound scape(s) personality .

What I like about tubes :

# 1 : You can change them yourself

# 2 : What a sound , with so little to fuss about in the " chain ":

Harp / guitar / tube amp / speaker > Done with a tube set up and if done right super dooper , and no real hard learning curve like what it took you to play a harp in the first place .

What I like about  my GNX4 x-tor ss digital Guitar Workstation ( aka Digital Harmonica Workstation to me and soon coming to a music store in your town too ) digital recorder / midi drums / EF's unit . It will soon double up on my harp as well as my guitar playing / recording & FX's unit .

And in front of me on the floor I have the smallest set of " stomp boxes " compared to to what most guitar / harp players have  in fromt of them . This Digitech besides the small footprint , leaves a giant impression over all when it comes to " bang for the buck " in more ways than I care to write of now except for a few points like , it also has a USB to you computor to do more extensive editing in your recorded material ( it has a CF memory card , your choice of memory size from 128 mgs to 2 gigs :) , you get to use also the power of your computor to really " super tweak " the amp & speaker modeling to the point of ballistics man ! ! You can modify a speaker cab's resonant frequency ! yep now hows that !  

I know some of this (: a whole lot to a newbie :) is way over their heads but you guys who know what I'm throwing down here have enjoyed this post a whole bunch because it address both Sonny's & Chris's stand points validaiting them both positively .

Even though I an using this ss stuff , I still want tube amps period for my main sound out to hear for my self as piont of reference to keep the ss stuff " INLINE " with my tune sound . 

TUBES RULE but :

With a GR33 Roland guitar synthezier , a Washburn D46SCE acoustic electric guitar , a nylon classical guitar , and  Strat copy & Godin LGXSA electric/midi guitar , well a single one amp approach is completely impractical to get out my best personal sound , all these other instruments are outside the guitar & harp spectrum of sound ( a limited space they occupy along side a piano , acoustic guitar , voice & other musical instrument ) and can not be reproduced without a really nice and quality P . A . My requirements are totally different from a single harp playing musicians's stand point . In the  beginning I was only a " side man " who showed up with my amp & harps , then later I got into EF's for my harp , then ... well you get my drift .        

Making it short & sweet :

I can still run my harp / guitar signal into my tube amp and into the P . A . :) or I can run it all through my P . A . I get choises man I get to choose what I need for what ever type gig I want to play whether it's me as a frontman or as a sideman backing someone else . 

I have the quiver for the job bar none . I can play my harp  & guitar , and sing using only my guitar amp for a quickie impromtu set up with all the bells & whisles to dress up this single amp set up with all sorts of stuff because of the GNX4's flexabilty , everything out of one amp , synth sounds from my GR33 Roland guitar , GNX4's amp models & FX's , yep it's bad for one little tube amp to pump all this on it's own , it sure does and it does it super too :)

For an individual harp / guitar performance sans singing or guitar as a side man only I use my tube amp with the GNX4 pumping it any effect I want  , I can use stomp box FX's , delay , reverb I get it all .

For my show I use the GNX4 to modify my vocals , guitar & harmonica and run it through the P . A . with every and all effects I need ever , sounds great :)

and - - 


In front of me is a very small footprint because this GNX4 does it all from allowing me to record " Loop " live on the fly with a harp , guitar , vocal , you name it I can back myself up live with these loops as opposed to  a " squenced midi program " playing my bass & rhythm lines . When you use a midi backing track alone on stage , to many it smells of " Millie Vanilli " fakery . When you loop what you just actually played live it leaves no doubt about you and your talent .

All in one tidy unit  . Wha Wha - Ya Ya , Flanger , Chorus , and more things to experiment with too maybe come up with something new hopefully no one's done yet :)

As we seek out the most efficiant way of playing music ( us guy's who do it as a way of life ) every musician buys the very best he can afford . The ways of the old masters like LW & other giants were no different . They were critizied for mic'ing & amping their sound , Les Paul was critsized for  making the first electric guitar 

- - the first cave man who started to thump a burned out hollow log was critized for using it instead of his hands and he critized the next dude who pick'd up a hard wood stick and got a louder and more dynamic sound - -

No matter who does what there's always a counter point attitude till it proves itself or is debunct in time by the ....

Truth of the results in the final analysis over time .

Sure I said in effect I like ss x-tor stuff but I still bring my tube amp with me as a " fail safe " if my Digitech takes a dump on stage and I have to " gut it out " the old way " :) Either way I win and am loving it all the time all the way because in the final ---

IT'S ALL GOOD :)

Sonny's right , and even Chris M is too on this but - - 


Chris : My Digitech can whip you Boss any day of the week - - - we'll  meet after school buster . 

- - Oh - - 

Here we go again ........

Sincerely :

Hurricane Ramón         
 
Aka :

Party_Man1@xxxxxxxxxx

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