Re: [Harp-L] Re: amps for beginners?

[Rick Davis <bluesharpamps@xxxxxxxxx>]

I respectfully disagree with the many Harp-Lers who (as I predicted) feel
certain that a beginning blues player should not buy an amp.

Amps do not cover up bad playing; they expose it brutally.  Bad playing
sounds, well, bad when played acoustically, but it sounds truly wretched
when played through an amp.  Amps encourage better technique.

Nowhere did I suggest a new blues player should practice ONLY with a mic and
amp; that would be silly.  But it is equally silly to suggest a new player
will be somehow ruined by buying a small tube practice amp and working with
it occasionally.

As some on this thread have said, amplified playing is a skill unto itself,
quite apart from the basics of the harmonica.  If a new player is drawn to
the sound he hears from players such as Kim Wilson or Big Walter, by all
means he should get a small tube amp and work on the technique.  He
certainly won't sound like Big Walter right away, but neither will the
beginning acoustic player sound like Howard Levy right away.  It takes
practice.  And it takes practice to sound good with an amp, too.  The
beginning player might as well get started sooner rather than later, if that
is the sound to which he aspires.

-Rick Davis