[Harp-L] Cruncher has Landed (long post/review)

["Bill Hines" <billhines4@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The first real amp I bought a year or so ago was a Sonny Jr SJ1 - his
first series from way back. A great sounding basic boutique harp amp at
about 17 watts. I used it to learn about amplified playing, tube
swapping, and so forth. But recently I wanted to reward my hard efforts
to learn this instrument and switch to something a little more powerful,
with some modern nuances, and more options, especially a *good* line-out
to the house system when required. 

You may have seen my posts about the alternative solution I use which is
a Digitech RP200 and Richard Hunter's patch set designed for amplified
harp and harp mics. I still use this and believe this is also a great
solution for situations where you aren't playing blues, or can't or
don't want to lug a heavy amp around (such as when I'm frequently
traveling on airlines). I still plan to continue to use that solution as
well (I fried my Rp200 and now I'm waiting to see what comes of
Richard's RP250 experiments before getting another RP200 or going with
the RP250).

I'm very neurotic about purchases like this (Consumer Reports subscriber
for basically my whole life, not that it helps with harp amps!), I will
spend weeks/months doing research before committing my money. So I've
been careful to pay attention to what the alternatives sound like and
look like, and their options. This is a side reason I went to SPAH this
year, the IBC in Memphis, and other events. I was looking to see what
amps were in use and talking to those using them about their experiences
with that amp and others. People are much more forthcoming in person and
after a few beers than they will often be in public forums! 

So my conclusion was that the "big three" (Sonny Jr, Meteor, Harp Gear)
were all great harp amps (generalizing here, of course each has several
models to choose from). And sure you can go buy a Reverb Deluxe, Blues
Junior, Bassman or other guitar amp and spend all kinds of time/money
through trial and effort to even approach what is the lifetime work of
the folks who build these custom harp amps. But the right one for *you*
depends on what sound *you* like and *you* want for yourself. And then
there's the flexibility and options and what is important for you there,
as far as how versatile *you* need to be. So it's an individual thing,
you can't just go by what others say works for them. You can't trust
clips from youtube and other internet sites because the audio is often
very compromised over the network or recorded at lossy formats in order
to keep the files small. So, YMMV.

In the end, I chose the Sonny Jr Cruncher because:

1. I already liked my Sonny Jr 1 and marveled at the workmanship and
attention to detail in its construction.
2. I already had a good relationship with Sonny Jr who always treated me
well. Yes, he can be volatile at times, he's dealing with a lot
personally. If you are straight with him and can be somewhat tolerant,
this is not an issue. As we all know he has serious health issues and
doesn't know how long he can keep up in this business, so for that
matter as well, I wanted to get one while I could.
3. I loved what I was hearing from this amp, and hearing about it from
many trusted sources. Every decision made for its construction made
sense to me, there were no compromises anywhere.
4. With its versatility, this amp will take me far down the road, maybe
even the last amp I'll ever have to buy.
5. The price was right. There's been a slight increase since I bought, I
believe, but this is still a bargain in my book for what you get.

So, after amassing a bunch of different equipment over the few years
I've been attempting to play, I began the process of whittling down
stuff that I was done experimenting with and sold it all. My Sonny Jr1,
my Digitech RP350 (kept the RP200 as stated above but fried it,
worthless), my Harp Commander III, and some other things. Between them
all, I had enough to buy the Cruncher.

It arrived well packed and on-time. Sonny Jr was in constant contact to
ensure I knew when it would get here (I asked for a certain date and he
hit it right on), etc. There's a very nice color manual inside, well
written, with passion, with tons of great tips on using the two normal
and bright channels, what effect tube swaps will bring, color photos of
the inside and components, etc. It also came with extra components -
various tubes, a patch cable for bridging the normal/bright channels, an
extra fuse and potentiometer. Sonny is always there for his customers.
He wants to make sure they are happy and using the amp properly (we all
know some folks think they know it all and won't read the manual, as you
will read below this would have been a much different result in our
testing if we hadn't). These amps are hand-crafted and engineered to do
things a certain way in certain configurations, and if you can't RTFM
then it's your loss, but everyone's loss when someone posts a negative
review based on bad config or misinformation.

The first thing I did was to just marvel at how absolutely beautiful
this amp is. My SJ1 was in pristine condition, but the finish on this
Cruncher just glows, it is so beautiful. The fit and finish are
remarkable, built like a tank from the ground up - every detail is done
with obvious loving care. I read through the manual - twice. And then
plugged in using the stock config, even though the manual had tempted me
to change some things based on my style and sound I desired. I ran
through some of my usual riffs and even though I've played through a lot
of stuff at this point I was still struck by the "Wow is that me" thing.
Now don't get me wrong, the amp didn't turn me into Little Walter or
anything close. It was my usual tired lame licks, but the striking thing
was that they had that 'edge' to them that I wanted, and when I applied
a little more technique (such as tongue pulls/slaps, pulling in a shade
of the 5 draw on the 4, and adjusting my cup) the results were better
and better through the amp as it responded. Normally I'm susceptible to
post-purchase dissonance where you buy something expensive and kind of
feel bad after or like it wasn't worth it, but not in this case. I was
just really thrilled right off the bat.

Then I promptly got sick as hell for a few days, and as soon as I
recovered my primary hard drive for work crashed and so almost a week of
my time has been consumed with these disasters over the holidays. But
last night I decided to get the Cruncher to our New Years Day jam and
ask the local players to run through the amp with their mics and vastly
superior knowledge and mics. These are players of various abilities, the
two top pro/semipro level guys were Mike Easton (well known here for
harp repairs) and Dane Paul Russell (who posts here sometimes and plays
in Bobby Parker's band). These guys are never afraid to laugh at me or
let me know when something sucks, as they have when I've brought one
contraption or another out to the jam. They're hard core, experienced
purists and not afraid to express their opinion, which I always value
greatly.

I got there a little late, due to aforesaid disasters, and was pretty
frazzled so I asked Mike to go up first after I set it up. He was going
to start with his crystal mic so I had him plug into the bright 2
channel. He played four songs, at one point switching to his
Butterfield-era Shure 545 pistol grip and trying that in the normal and
bright channels. Mike sounded ridiculously good as always, but what
struck me is that especially with the crystal mic, he cut right through
the very loud, muddy mix that comprises most jams including ours. He was
experimenting a lot with the settings and mics so at times he was
washing out. This is explained later, but was also attributed to a bad
power strip which we took out of the mix. Mike didn't have time to read
the manual before he went up, but he flipped through it before his
second set and the light bulb came on. He then knew how to tweak the
setting best for his crystal, and then the 545. Mike lost some of his
signal when he just plugged the 545 into the bright channel in the first
set, until he tweaked the settings some and then went back to the normal
channel in the second set after he better understood the amp's
architecture. Mike may see this and correct anything I got wrong and add
anything else, but needless to say he came away impressed and is
considering a Cruncher for himself.

For my set I took advantage of Mike having already set the amp for a
hi-z mic and plugged in my older green bullet to normal one channel. I
bumped down the treble though as is my habit and this was a mistake. As
I played, it sounded to me like I was having trouble cutting through the
mix, especially since in my novice lack of confidence I tend to play at
low volumes, hoping nobody can hear my mistakes (I know, I know). Mike
reminded me between songs that a major key to this is the treble, and
this isn't advice for the Cruncher but really any harp amp. Novices like
me tend to swing the bass way up and throw the treble way down to fight
feedback and that's a bad compromise to make. I'm always paranoid about
feedback so I'm hesitant to bring too much treble. Well Mike swung that
baby way up and it was a huge difference and NO FEEDBACK. I loved what I
was hearing, even for the dreaded song in "C" where I had to pull out my
F harp, it gave a nice edge, compared to the shrillness that I always
hated before

I noticed that the other intermediate type players also sounded much
better. And this wasn't just me, a few of the other folks in the
audience remarked how so-and-so sounded better and was much easier to
hear this week and asked if there was something different. They had no
idea that I had brought a new amp. That's a non-biased situation for
sure!

Dane Paul Russell, like Mike E - one of those guys who can sound good
through a tin cup and string. But Dane is a guy that's prejudiced
against amps and toward his sophisticated expensive POD wireless setup.
He played some through his own mic and then through my bullet and tore
down the house as always with his rhythmic, funky blues style in various
positions up and down the harp. Dane was also impressed as hell and said
"I was prepared to say a few kind words and let you down easy but that's
one hell of an amp, I'd like to have one even though I'm not an amp guy
and I'm going to recommend it to my students"

Anyway, this has gone on too long but I like to put the info out there
and take the time to do that because I appreciate it when others do, to
help me make my own decisions. In the next few jams I'm going to switch
in the 5751 preamp tube, and do some sets using the bridged channels and
run the line out to the house.

I always see these reviews and always wonder if after you buy an amp, if
the seller asks you to post a review if you like it. Sonny Jr has NOT
asked me to post any review and I am in no way affiliated, other than
being a very satisfied customer.

Bill Hines
Hershey, PA