[Harp-L] Mick's crappy, collectible harp amps

[Mick Zaklan <mzaklan@xxxxxxxxx>]

   I didn't contribute to the gear thread a short while back because I'm not
much of a gearhead.  If I had any advice to give to a young player just
starting out, it would be to buy something new. New!  Screw the
collectibles.  I've got a ' 59 Bassman that looks like it was pulled out of
a house fire.  That's the way it looked 30 years ago when I bought it for a
couple hundred bucks.  I've also got a mint condition (at least externally)
Fender Super Reverb that I've owned for 25 years. $300 for that one.
Combined, I might have these amps turned on a total of 30 hours annually.
By the end of the year, one or both of them will have quit on me.
Reliability-wise; neither of these beasts, to borrow a phrase from the late
Harry Truman, "is worth a pitcher of warm spit".  Nowadays; since I play
maybe one or two paying gigs in 12 months, basically I'm playing to pay an
amp tech.  I've probably spent over a thousand bucks with a half-dozen techs
trying to keep these amps running over the years.  They've been rebuilt,
restored, re-coned, etc.  I think my record is 4 gigs in a row without a
problem.  That's pretty pathetic.
   I've come to the conclusion that guitarists are like gun owners.  One is
never enough. Guitars or amps.  When my Bassman fried the other night at
rehearsal for the umpteenth time, the guitarists had four or five backup
guitars and amps gathering dust in the corner.  That was just the stuff they
brought to rehearsal.   I spent the rest of the night playing out of a small
Music Man.  I used to play one of these and had forgotten how crappy they
sound for harmonica.  I had no trouble selling my old Music Man years ago.
Every time a guitarist would plug into mine, he would rave about how great
it sounded.  For guitar.  I would watch with amazement as these guys would
push the volume knob up to 8 or 9.  3 was the maximum I could ever get the
thing up to with a mic and harp.  Then the damn thing would feedback like a
banshee.
   The next night, I found a Fender Deco Tone amp perched on an amp stand
waiting for me.  Just a couple of years old.  Though it had gathered a layer
of dust down in the basement the purchase and warranty tags were still on
it.  I kidded the guitarist about that.  "You left those on for "Antiques
Roadshow", right?".  The amp, about the size of a modest television set,
looked like a radio from the 30's.  All plastic, round grill, no edges. Like
something out of Flash Gordon.  I think the amp had a single speaker, 10 or
12 inches.  I'm sure the guts of this thing were probably out of one of
Fender's regular production amps.  I have to say, the little guy sounded
terrific down in the basement.  Whether it was the room, the hot Sonny Jr.
mic, the amp stand, the particular settings; I don't know.
Unfortunately, Fender only cranked out less than 200 of these.  Otherwise,
I'd be ordering one of them now.
   Again, in my humble opinion, buy something new.  Otherwise, it's like
loading your prized possessions into a car with 400,000 miles on it and
attempting to drive from coast to coast.  It's not a question of whether or
not something might go wrong, but when and how many times.  I don't know how
many times my old amps have quit on me in the middle of solos onstage.
Nothing more frigging embarrassing.

Mick Zaklan