[Harp-L] Annie's rig (was Laredo)

[Rishell Associates <paulandannieblues@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi fjm,
How are you?  I hope you're well.  We've been hanging in there, though work is scarce at the moment.  
A student of mine - an excellent student, in fact - Bob Vivona, alerted me to some curiosity on harp-l about my rig, and I was happy to have the opportunity to respond through him.  Then I remembered your earlier offer to post messages from me, and I thought I'd take you up on it.  My interest in sharing this information has been heightened as I'm doing a lot more teaching these days.  I'm working on making some sort of instructional video though I have no particular plans for how to produce or distribute it.  At this point it's all in my head, as they say.

So I wanted to respond to Spec20's posting to the thread, which reads: 
"In Gary Smith's videos, Joh Gindicks books, Brian Purdy's website,  (and about a zillion other places), pro blues players stress the vital importance of the tight cup on the bullet mic.  So which is it?  It it important or not?"

I think there are two meanings of the word "tight" that are being confused here.  One is "airtight" and the other is "tense."  One does not necessarily imply the other.  You can get a more airtight cup around the harp and/or mic by keeping your hands relaxed (and therefore fleshier, covering more space), as opposed to being tensed up (muscles contracted, compressed, covering less space).  I think Madcat was the first person to point that out to me.  
Also, if you base your positioning around being relaxed, it's easier to tense up and tighten up the aperture than it is to go from being tensed up to a relaxed position.  The only tension you really need is just enough to keep from dropping the mic!

-Annie