Re: [Harp-L] Rod Piazza gear at Tampa Blues Fest - blow by blow

[Dan <billybudd1313@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear List,
   
  mjmeadors writes below in his post on Rod Piazza's gear  that the mic and pedal are "much more the source of his sound"  
   
  Dear mjm and list, Please believe me when I say that Rod Piazza is much more the source of his sound than ANY gear. He has huge tone regardless of the mic, the amp, or the stomp box.  It's in his mouth, hands, tongue, throat etc. It's also in the YEARS OF HARD WORK.  
   
    This is true of most pro's and as should IMHO be the eventual goal of the serious player.
   
  I believe that  Good tone with a bad amp or PA is always OK.  Bad tone through a good amp is just "louder bad tone"
   
   
   
  To answer the other questions:
   
  Rod generally plays 2 Harp King amps, however, since he's doing less Van-style touring and more fly-in gigs, I bet he's using a lot of borrowed/rented gear on the road.
   
  The White pedal is a Boss Digital Delay, tweaked by Kinder to (correct me if I'm wrong folks) to provide less signal loss than stock.  I thought the duct taped thing was the power supply for said pedal.  
   
  Dan G.
   
  www.edbluepills.com
  www.jdbone.com
   
   
   
   
  Message 15 
    From: "mjmeadors@xxxxxxx" mjmeadors@xxxxxxx
    Date: Tue May 9, 2006 7:06pm(PDT) 
Subject: [Harp-L] Rod Piazza gear at Tampa Blues Fest - blow by blow

 I had never seen Rod play before, but was always told he uses a 
Harpking.  The promoter of the Tampa Blues Fest had his Harpking there but 
Rod played instead through a Fender Bassman sitting on the ground, and 
linked to a Silverface Fender Super Reverb sitting behind the Bassman, 
about 8 inches off the ground.  Both were mic'd of course through the 
P.A.  I am not sure if Rod used that setup as a temp substitute that was 
available just to get through  his set or not.  I was sitting in the 
very front row about 10 feet away from Piazza.
 
While setting up, Rod first pulled out a super duct taped pedal of some 
sort, I couldn't see what it was because it was so heavily duct taped.  
Maybe one of you other harp l'ers will know what it was.  He also 
linked in the chain a light blue/white delay pedal.  This all went direct to 
the Bassman, then to the Super Rev.  During the set he pulled out a 
wireless rig, unscrewed the JT-30, screwed it in the wireless adapter, 
jumped into the crowd, and away he went doing his show.
 
One observation:  Rod's tone has always been large and I think, very 
distinquishable from other players.  I had always thought it had to do 
with his technique, of course, but also the amp.  I am much less 
convinced that the amp is the thing.  This is a relief after so many years 
thinking that the next amp around the corner was THE ONE.  Whatever he is 
playing through, particularly the mic and the mysteriious duct taped box 
seem to me to be much more of the source of his sound.  I mean, when he 
set up, and was just testing to see if the mic was on, like we all do, 
and only had one hand on the mic, the other on the controls, no real 
cupping, GEEZ - the harp WAS BARELY IN HIS MOUTH and the big tone was 
there.   I know what most of you will say, that it is Rod's technique all 
the way, but I really think that his mic and the box are fundamental to 
his sound now.  
That's just how I saw it, so sue me.
 
m