Re: [Harp-L] Recommendations for an affordable first amp?

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dane, I'm sure an XT Pro into a Mackie 450 makes a hell of a big sound.  I use a mackie 450 with the Digitechs for band rehearsals, and I can get as much volume as anyone might ever need.  

For people who use amp modelers like the Line6s or Digitechs, it's an open question whether you want to use a powered speaker like the Mackie or a keyboard amp.  My most recent purchase was a Peavey KB2 keyboard amp, but I could easily have gone with a powered speaker instead.  The built in mixer in the Peavey was a deciding factor for me, since I wanted something that could mix multiple inputs.  The presence of a balanced line out on the Peavey was the clincher.

regards. Richard Hunter
Regards, RH


-----Original Message-----
>From: Dane Paul <Monsterharp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Sep 17, 2010 12:34 AM
>To: Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [Harp-L] Recommendations for an affordable first amp?
>
>True words.......I'm happy with my POD XT PRo
>I've tried many amps as I'm shure you have and am not willing to give up the versatility.
>As for volume I plug into a Mackie 450........from whisper quiet to ear bleed.
>I've not tried the RP sereies yet but it sounds like you an many others have had some good experience with them, As well thanks to your experimentation and making your patches available.
>As for affordable battery powered amps I'm going to suggest a Smokey amp (30.00) plugged into a small extention speaker .......surprising sound.
>
>.................Dane Paul 
>
>On Sep 15, 2010, at 16:04, Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Richard Eisenberg wrote:
>> <Epiphone Valve Junior; an affordable tube amp, key word TUBE. You want these
>> <for sound quality
>> 
>> Yeah, it's a nice tube amp. Simple 5 watt tube amps with 8" speakers are manufactured by Fender (Champ), Crate (V8), Peavey (ValveKing), Epiphone (Valve Junior), and others.  They retail between $150 and $250.  They all sound pretty good, and they can all be tweaked to sound even better.  Just about any manufacturer (except Hohner, apparently) can put a 12AX7 preamp tube together with an EL84 or 6L6 power amp tube and an 8" or 10" speaker and make it sound good. Any one of these amps is a decent choice for a first harp amp, though I'd still recommend an amp-modeled device like the Vox DA5 over any of them to a first time buyer based on sound, price, and the presence of built-in effects.  (Playing amped harp without reverb or delay is less than ideal, and none of the tube amps named above has either.)  
>> 
>> In any case, tube amps are irrelevant to this discussion.  Apparently few people  actually read the original poster's spec list, which specifically said that he needed something that would run on BATTERIES.  I doubt that there is a tube amp of any size, anywhere, that runs on batteries.  I know I've never seen one. (By "batteries", I mean C cells, AAs, etc.--as opposed to a half dozen car batteries wired in series.)  That requirement alone takes the 12AX7/EL84 amps out of the picture.
>> 
>> And fortunately for the original poster, there are other ways to get a good sound besides tubes.  I had a conversation about amps with Steve Baker at SPAH.  He told me that he had lined up a dozen amps of various types--big, small, amp modeled, tube--at a seminar he did in Germany, and the seminar attendees played through them all.  The amazing thing was that they all sounded pretty good--IF the player could get a decent sound out of the harp, "decent" meaning loud and clear. Weak players made the amps sound weak.  Strong players made the amps roar.
>> 
>> It always seems to come back to "you have to be able to play to get a good sound out of your gear," doesn't it?  That aside, guys, it's 2010. I think we can safely stop assuming that the state of the art in amplification was forever defined by what could be purchased on a struggling blues musician's budget in 1947.    
>> 
>> Regards, Richard Hunter
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> author, "Jazz Harp" 
>> latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
>> more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
>> Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
>> Twitter: lightninrick


author, "Jazz Harp" 
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick
Twitter: lightninrick