Re: [Harp-L] A tipping point for used Digitech RP prices?

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greg Heumann wrote:
<I suspect you'll hear opinions to the contrary but I have played both. The RP is a wonderful way not to have to carry an amp. But <an RP (or ANY amp modeler) and a PA is no substitute for a good tube amp like an SJ. They just don't sound the same. The "real <thing" is smoother, fatter, warmer, bigger and WAY easier to hear on stage without feedback issues. Modern PA's don't have tubes - <everything in their design is about making clean sound. So you use the pedal to manufacture digital simulations of tube <distortion, speaker distortion, speaker cabinet resonanceÂ..and then hope the PA reproduces them accurately. But they were still <digital simulations to begin with. Some day I'll be too old to lift my tube amp. But I ain't there yet!!!
<
<There's probably a reason that the vast majority of the most famous blues players still haul real tube amps to their gigs. (I'm <saying vast majority to allow the possibility, but I can't think of a single internationally known blues harp artist who uses an <amp modeler through a PA.)

Steve Baker uses the RP (with versions of my patches that he's customized for himself) straight through a PA on occasion--there's a video of him with one of his (many) bands doing so linked to the Store page on my site. So far as I know, Steve qualifies as "internationally known." 

Rob Paparozzi is using an RP with my patch set on many of his gigs, or was last time I looked.  

I've had a number of conversations with Charlie Musselwhite about setting him up with an RP.  I used an RP155 when I sat in with Charlie's band at Infinity Hall in Norfolk, CT a couple of years ago.  Charlie told me that he liked the sound plenty, and his band liked it too. Since then we've spent some time on the phone trying to adjust patches to his liking, but I'm sure what we really need is a couple of hours to work on it live.  

Marcos Coll, the Spanish player who's played played any number of concerts internationally, uses an RP200 running my patches for  most of his gigs.  In fact, Charlie asked me about the RP because Marcos recommended it to him.  

Boris Plotnick, the great Russian player, has been using the POD HD, another amp modeler, for his gigs for the last couple of years.  he's also used RPs,and continues to check out what's available in this fast-changing field.

I don't claim that the RP--or any other amp modeler, along with purpose-built distortion devices such as the Lone Wolf harp Attack--sounds (or can be made to sound) exactly like a specific Sonny Jr.  (I own an SJ 4x10 that I use for comparison testing to my RP patches, so I know something about what one sounds like.) However, I have no problem at all claiming that RPs sound damn good.  You can listen to the various clips at http://hunterharp.com and decide for yourself--I'm very clear there about the gear I use on my recordings, right down to the specific patches I employ on the RP.

Tube technology sounds great.  Amp modeling technology sounds great too.  The fact that one can acquire an RP plus a full set of my patches for less than $200--or any other amp modeler of your choice for a similar price--and have a road-worthy device that can be carried in a shoulder bag, connected to a PA in less than 5 minutes, and produce drastic changes in the player's sound with a button push--makes it a very viable choice for many players--especially for pros, I might add, for whom extensive traveling with a big tube amp is as much a cross to bear as anything.

Thanks, Richard Hunter




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