[Harp-L] Bass amps for amplified harp

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

Since the end of last year, I've been playing through a small SWR  
Baby Baby Blue bass amp,   i think it's primarily designed for  
acoustic bass.  It has a 10" speaker, a piezo tweeter (which i turn  
off), a tube preamp (solid state power stage), and very sophisticated  
3 band semi parametric EQ that gives me almost total control over  
tone shaping.  Nice deep, dark, thick tone, with a little texture  
from the tube pre.   No reverb, but I put a delay set to slap back in  
the effects loop since i don't like to play dry. 120 watts and won't  
feedback, even at relatively loud volumes.  Has a line out and an XLR  
out, which i've never had to use.

I'm very happy with this amp.  I get very, very close the sound i  
hear in my head.   Really wonderful harp amp for my style of play and  
the sound i want to create.  Works well both with and without the  
effects pedals I've started to use.  And I can get as loud as i need  
to without fear of feedback.

Now, I assumed this amp was special because of the elaborate EQ and  
the tube pre. I also happen to have a strong preference for 10"  
speakers.  But, a few months ago, due to a peculiar combination of  
circumstances, I wound up playing through the second input of a bass  
player's Behringer bass amp that had one 15" speaker (which the bass  
player kept telling me was an EV Black Widow) and my harp sounded  
GREAT through that bass rig, too.

Now, I've started to wonder if bass amps in general may be well  
suited for playing amplified harp.  Certainly, a bass amp does not  
provide the distorted tone that some harmonica players like to get  
from an overdriven tube amp, but that's not the sound i go for  
anyway.  I prefer a basically clean, dark, thick sound with some body  
and texture (and that I can make respond to my mic handling and  
breath techniques) and my limited experience playing through bass  
amps has given me just that.

Anyone else have experience playing harp through a bass rig? What do  
you think?

JP