[Harp-L] "Best" Mics and Amps? Bah!

[David Fertig <drfertig@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bear with me: I "work" at a wine shop 2 days a week.  It's amazing how 12 people often have 12 different perceptions of the same wine.

Like mics and amps.  Harp-Ler Harvey Berman, Raconteur Extraordinaire of N'Awlins, shared mics on my recent visit, and his bottle-o-blues style mic sounded rich in his hands, thin in mine, and my Tom Austin 707d frankenmic sounded thin in his hands, different in mine. 

It's simply different for each harp player. Same with amps. 

I tried a neat little (and powerful) amp on the recent Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, "RedPlateamps.com", hand-built by Henry Heistand out of Phoenix. Once Henry dialed it in for me it sounded much sweeter than the 59 RI, Twin Reverb and other cool amps on the jam stage.  Other players had different results.

Aside: At first it was feeding back, and the jam was starting so I used the vocal mic, no sweat (Except Curtis Salgado and Lee Oskar, and I think Magic Dick, were in the audience . . .) so I played clean style instead of dirty.  Adapt or die.

Enough with "Best"!  Maybe the "best" combo is one that works when you need it right then, and whatever the gear, acoustics and etc., you adjust your playing to the circumstances.  
 
What's the best wine?  That which you're enjoying at the moment!  The rest is just a story about another place and time, in which the wine was only one factor.  

So use the amps and mics you like, buy, share and discuss them, and don't assume everyone gets the same flavors from the same gear. 

- Dave "In the Moment" Fertig