Re: [Harp-L] 59 Fender Bassman reissue

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Burness wrote:
<Richard wrote: "That said, in 2011 there are alternatives, some of which offer more power and flexibility at a <lower price and with a smaller, lighter footprint, and an increasing number of players are beginning to outfit <themselves with those alternatives. " Rick's poll was conducted in 2011, I'm not sure what has happened in the <months since to significantly change his data?
 
When I wrote this, I had in mind multiFX and amp modeling platforms such as the line 6, Digitech RPs, etc.  A number of pros are using this gear in performance, and my patch sales show that the pace of adoption is increasing over the last 12 months.

<"The Bassman sounds great for blues, but modern players increasingly need to play more than blues." A bassman <is rated at 45W RMS, or 50W RMS with a solid state rectifier, this is the power it potentially makes when <relatively clean...as with any 45 or 50W amp. It doesn't know or care what genre of musc you play...it just <reacts to what goes in. It's not genre specific. 

The sound of a harp through an overdriven tube amp is closely associated with blues and rock.  Saying that it's not genre specific ignores the fact that most players go for that setup precisely because it works well for amped blues and rock, right out of the box.  Most jazz chromatic players, to take an obvious example, don't go for a Bassman (and definitely not for the Green Bullet that usually accompanies the Bassman onstage).

<There are, of course, alternatives, but as a pick up & go, pretty well self contained package (you're gonna <have to mic up through a PA sometime), a tweed bassman is hard to beat...the RI makes that package rather more <accessible to the masses than a handmade 45/50W amp.
 
It's a good setup.  We apparently agree that it's not the only setup.  An amp modeled setup with a mid-priced amp modeler (about $200) and a powerful keyboard amp or self-powered PA speaker (such as a Peavey KB3 or Mackie Thump) would run about $500-600 new, is as loud and easy to set up as the Bassman (and a little lighter to carry), and does a lot of things that the Bassman can't do (beginning with straightforward stuff like delay and reverb) without add-ons.

All this by way of saying that in 2011 the default setup is not necessarily a big tube amp (or a little tube amp).  Of course that setup works; it's been refined over 50 years, and it'll keep working for lots of music.  But it's not the only game in town anymore for harp players who want to get loud.

Regards, Richard Hunter

author, "Jazz Harp" 
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