Re: [Harp-L] If money were no objext...

[David Brown <nonidesign@xxxxxxxxx>]

It depends.......
In my opinion, and depending on the bands, you can't have one amp to do
both.
ROCK:
I play with a LOUD rock band. I went through a whole lot of attempts at
trying to mic big amps, small, amps etc
and there were always volume and/or feedback issues. The guitar player uses
a 410 Fender fer crissakes. Even when using my Kinder AFB (which I consider
one of the most important pieces of gear I have ever owned) problems can
still occur (ever play on those old disco stages with back and side walls
of glass mirror?).

So for that band I now use an amp-less rig and run straight through the PA.
No guitar player can beat that. The key components of this rig are the
Kinder AFB and The Lone Wolf Harp Attack. I have a delay pedal (BBE 2
Timer) in and a BOSS eq pedal in the chain as well. I use any mic I wish
and have no problems, ever. BUT, you still gotta watch out for feedback
from the monitors or idiot sound guys who put the main PA speakers in the
back of the stage. All usually fixable problems.

BLUES:
I have tried almost every boutique harp amp out there, but I stand by the
Sonny Juniors I own for gigging with bands that play at reasonable volume
(I have owned a SJ2, and currently own a SJ410 and a Cruncher, but not a
Super Cruncher). I could talk details all day, but I'll just say I feel
they're the best and leave the nit picking to others. I set this up with a
mic into a delay and into the amp. Done. My SJ410 is absolutely amazing,
but run it in tandem with the Cruncher (which has a 12") and it's better
than back seat on prom night (well....maybe not better than THAT).
But I digress.  Anyway, with any amp there is still the issue of "throwing"
sound. I usually play in small bars. Often the crowd is close to the band,
and we're not on a raised stage. Unless the amp is above their head a lot
of the sound gets eaten by the wall of people right in front of it. It's a
frequency issue as well as a volume issue. Harps just don't cut like
guitars and the only thing that seems to fix that issue is a pistol.
OK, so, you can mic the amp, but then come the feedback issues to deal
with (get that kinder AFB, brother).

OPEN STAGES. I like open stage jams. They are a good way to cut your teeth.
Get a cool anchor house band and they can be really really fun. The problem
is that while most harp players I've met at them are cool but not in
bands due to work, lack of available gigs, restricted playing schedules,
etc............most of the guitar players I run into at these jams are
there because no band will put with their ego (ie: shit). So the jam can
end-up being a "greater than thou" duel between every rock god wannabe in
the house. This invariably leads to LOUD.....which brings us back to the
harp feedback and projection issues ....which brings us back to pistols.

I find myself, more often than not, bringing my amp-less rig out. I play
with a band now and then that is PERFECT for harp players (guitar layers
that playlow and the drummer ALWAYS uses brushes!), but in Indiana the bars
still allow smoking (not gonna bring an SJ in there).

Hope this helps.


On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 10:50 AM, John Dekker <jdekker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> What amp/mic combo would you pick? Assuming you primarily play blues, but
> also some classic rock (with a band).
>
> Would you consider the Richard Hunter method of playing through a Digitech
> RP (using his patches, of course) into a keyboard amp?
>
> JD
>