[Harp-L] Re: Audix Fireball

[Nicholas Kempf <euterpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

No need to echo Richard Hunter's reply, but build upon it.

For all the endless discussion about tube amps, bullet-type mics, and  
what makes what this this, and what makes this that, and bona fides  
means and methods, the truth of it is one can never foretell what  
combo is going to turn up with that cherished tone. Little Walter  
picking up the nearest mic at hand and plugging into an available amp  
and coming up with that ' tone' was more an exercise in serendipity  
than studious research on his part. And a lot of that tone comes from  
the mouth itself, not just the hardware.
As example of shouldn't-be-but-is, I have a Fender RI Bassman  
(modified with a tube rectifier), a Fender Pro Junior (more seriously  
modified, with a Bassman's Jensen Special 10 replacement, and the mic  
input running through a small tube preamp [Presonus]  fit into the  
back of the cab before going to the PJ's jack), and lastly a Pignose  
Hog 20. I favor a late model Shure Green Bullet,.
So while the Bassman comes closest to my ideal sound, it's the  
Pignose that comes in second (and often, to my ear, it's a tie). The  
PJ, for all my efforts, lags behind. Tthe irony is that the Pignose-- 
as solid-state as you can get, nary a vacuum tube to be found  
anywhere in its makeup, its five inch speaker a ceramic magnet rather  
than the prized alnico, and designed for guitar--produces, for all  
those no-no's,  a really nice punch'n'crunch' tone'.
Even as the little dwarf stands breaking all the cardinal rules of  
electrified harp blues. Go figure.

I bought the original Fireball to play impromptu thru house PAs at  
jams. It serves that purpose well--it's near absolute resistance to  
feedback a gift from the electric gods. And I don't have to look like  
an idiot blowing furiously but virtually inaudibly into the easily- 
lug-able Pignose, overwhelmed by drums and guitars smashing and  
slashing all round (general jams are rarely for blues purists).  
Through the PA, even without a Commando, I can get heads nodding  
approvingly--who otherwise don't know blues harp tone from breaking  
wind.
And as extra bonus I just discovered is it also makes an excellent  
cab-mic, much like the SM57, if slightly more bright (probably more  
linear).

I'm by no means new to the harp; my first encounter was listening to  
my older brother's first Bo Diddley album in '58, and hearing Billy  
Boy Arnold. Then, back in summer of '65, I saw Paul Butterfield et al  
several successive and blissful evenings--his band just having left  
Chicago and on their way to fame at Newport--in a folk music coffee  
house across the street from my home in Oak Bluffs, Martha's  
Vineyard. And these two musicians made an indelible stamp on my ear  
for the harp. And it's important to note that neither played exactly  
the 'Chicago Way', even though they hailed from the Windy City, and  
back when players (Little Walter, Big Walter) who are identified as  
the originators of that South Side tone were still above ground (if a  
bit wobbly).