[Harp-L] Greg Heumann Custom Mic from Blowsmeawayproductions

[Ryan Mitchell-Smith <music@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is my post to Greg Heumann, after recently receiving my custom mic 
from him. I'm posting because this truly is a one of a kind mic, with 
unquenchable tone! Greg works tirelessly and passionately for us and 
deserves a huge dept of gratitude. Also, it's a nice story ;)

I discovered Greg Heumann in a very random and funky way. Back in the 
UK, on New Year's Eve of 2012, Charlie Musselwhite was to appear on the 
BBC's Later with Jools Holland's "hootenanny"... I watched with delight 
as he came on and played with Cyndi Lauper... he goes into a bit of a 
solo... HANG ON! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT! It was then that I spotted the 
back of Charlie's mic, red as a chevy, popping out of the cup of his 
hands. I saw the Bassman he used, made sense, but what on earth was he 
using!!! I then did my research, avidly... to discover at long last, the 
Blowsmeaway.com site and the lovely man who is Greg Heumann. The next 
bit was MY luck. My father was a great harp player in his own right... 
An English Bluesman called Pete Mitchell-Smith who died sadly 15 years 
ago, who played with and supported many of the greats when they visited 
the UK, including Charlie Musselwhite *and* Jools Holland... This only 
added to my delight and seemed to make the whole scenario very 
meaningful indeed. My mum and step dad caught me talking about it, 
avidly, and called me up, and told me to get on the email, and get 
designing my own mic! I did... the rest is history!

Hi Greg,

It's here!! In fact it's been in my possession now for a fair few 
hours... Enough time to really blow and get a feel. I sat down again 
pretty much instantly after my first go as I was so emotional and 
gob-smacked. Greg, it's amazing!!! I've been speechless now for over an 
hour!

I've *never* experienced such a magical tone as this before and in 
particular, I simply cannot believe just how responsive and subtle this 
thing is... Every nuance and inflection is expertly amplified with a 
creaminess of tone and power that the Bassman thrives on and relishes 
throwing at you. The airtight chamber allows me to really dig in to my 
bends and doesn'tgive you that brittle after-honk that the modern 
520DX's tend to deliver. This means the 50s reverb unit I use actually 
sounds authentic and reverberates the harmonica sound instead of the 
muddy after-honks, giving me that wonderful "Little Walter" tone I've 
craved all these years. The stealth volume control is simply the most 
inspirational and well-designed idea for a harmonica microphone that 
I've ever seen developed. I've never found it so easy to incorporate 
volume changes through control before... It's just so "use-able"!

There are light years of distance between the 520DX and the custom 
blowsmeaway mic, in terms of tone, feel and weight, use-ability, 
sensitivity, sense of quality to name a few... the best way I can 
describe it, is as though you've been sat playing a Casio keyboard for 
the majority of your blues life, and then one day, you sit down at a 
Steinway Grand piano. The quality devours you. It's incredible.

Greg Heumann is a very very talented man indeed. His craftsmanship and 
passion runs through this mic like a Stallion's pedigree. It is the 
prettiest and most special thing that I own. I love it!

Thank you so much for making a grown man feel like a kid again, and for 
making me the "perfect" mic.

Yours faithfully

Ryan Mitchell-Smith

UK
2012

And there you have it.... A lovely little story and a champion of a 
man.. Greg Heumann we salute you ;)