[Harp-L] Re: Blind Owl's Mic @ Woodstock

[BluzeHarp@xxxxxxx]

>From: "BL Zabob" _blzabob@xxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:blzabob@xxxxxxxxxxx) 
>I'll have to  disagree with a couple of points here. I chose 545's in 1967 
>because  they WERE known as a popular choice for harmonica, horns, miking 
amp  
>cabinets, snare drums, and vocals. I knew a tenor sax player that loved  
>those mics....
 
Anyone out there have pic's or video of a 'custom' harp mic that  predates 
Alan's at Woodstock?
 
We're closer than you think on this, I agree 100% that the 545 was a  very 
popular mic for it's designed purposes, and that it found it's way  into all 
sorts of places that Shure wasn't thinking of when they made  it.  I also 
agree that it's a great harp mic, I'm on record in my free  Harp Mic Buyers 
Guide as saying it's one of my favorite stick models. That  said, there is 
only one prominent harp player  from that era (Butterfield) who seems to  be 
associated with it.  This strongly suggests that it  wasn't all that popular 
in the harmonica community at that time.   There were numerous players from 
the 60's & 70's associated  with JT-30's & Green Bullets, but with the 545 
only  that one person redily comes to mind.  I'm sure there  were others, it 
indeed sounds like you were one of the people who  had 'discovered' this 
tool back then. (I was only 12 in 1967 & not yet  playing the harmonica)  My 
hat is off to you for that,  but viewing it from an overall historical 
perspective rather  than from that as an individual, there is a body of  evidence 
which says the 545 wasn't a popular  choice among the notables of that era.  
 
In any case, the thread was about the likelihood of the mic in  the Alan 
Wilson Woodstock video being a 545.  It may be so,  but it did look like 
chrome, which does sometimes appear on stick  mic's (older Turner products comes 
to mind), so the  odds remain high that it's not a 545.  Here's a couple 
other  possibilities just from Shure; the 533 Spher-o-Dyne & the 585.  533's 
typically had a shinier finish than the 545's so it seems just as  likely.  
The 585 has a cleaner tone, so it too seems just as likely as  the 545. That's 
just two out of hundreds from around the globe.  I don't  have hard data at 
hand on production dates on those two, the point is that  it could be 
anything.
 
One thing IS for shure, Jason Ricci was once a student of the Blind  Owl 
School of cobbled together harp mic's.  Same  funky electrical tape job until 
Greg Heumann built a VC into a SM57  for him.  
 
 
Christopher Richards - Twin Tome Harmonica  Microphones