Re: [Harp-L] amp and tone

["bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx" <bbqbob917@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-- "john" <jjthaden@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
======= At 2008-05-04, 08:21:01 Rainbow Jimmy wrote: =======
>I realized when I play amplified I tend to play pretty hard, trying to
>get that overdrive sound,. What I heard as shrill was actually me playing a
>little flat.

Or maybe some of both?  This is a helpful email for me because I never thought
through implications of having air pressure serve ~two~ functions during amplified
playing (loudness and amount of breakup) and mostly just loudness during acoustic play.
Could some of the shrillness be because reed excursion is near-maximal?

>I've been recording through the old 48 champ.

And I play through similar, 1x6" amps both live and recorded: usually a '52 Premier 50; sometimes a
'52 Champion 600.  An advantage of the Premier is a second knob for tone, so I can roll off shrillness.

>Another bit of trivia--I find, for me, octaves sound better with a nice
>crisp attack. Stacatto. Do the head shake if I want to sustain them. That
>might be because I'm using equal tuned harps.

Both equal and just temperaments, if accurate, have pure (beatless) octaves.  
>
>-- 
>Rainbow Jimmy

Best regards.				 
john
jjthaden@xxxxxxxxx
2008-05-04

Hi,
In an interview LW had with Bill Lindemann along with Louis Myers before he died, he said the reason he preferred to play amplified was that he would NOT need to be playing so hard, which he often times was forced to dowhen playing unamplified with an amplified band. Breath force not only changes the pitch, but it also drastically will alter the tone, and better breath control allows for a considerably wider variety of tonal colors. BTW, this is why harmonica companies tune harps to A442-A443 for this very reason because the harder you play, the more the pitch gets dropped and so by tuning it this way, no matter how you play, it won't fall below A440. Using less breath force and having complete and TOTAL command was a lesson I got from watching Big Walter Horton play one of my stock MB's demonstrating how he played his intro on "Can't Hold On Much Longer" from the Alligator LP, and he barely used any breath force to do it, and when I got home and tried it, it worked, and it was an eye opener for me, and a lesson I've never forgotten!!!!

Sincerely,
Barbeque Bob Maglinte
Boston, MA
http://www.barbequebob.com
MP3's: htttp://music.mp3lizard.com/barbequebob/ 
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