RE: [Harp-L] The best blues harp amp

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The best blues harp amp is the one that makes a sound that inspires you. if the sound inspires you, you're going to play more, and the more you play the better you will sound.

The fact is that we are very fortunate to have available to us a wide range of amps and devices in just about every price range that sound great, no matter how you define great.  A survey of the pros on this list would show a wide variety of preferred setups, and any one of them would sound great in the right hands.

I own a Crate VC508 modded by Ron Holmes--a classic 5 watt amp--a Sonny Jr Super Sonny, and a bunch of Digitech RP pedals.  They all sound great; they all inspire me.  Any of them might be the "best" amp for me on a given night in a given musical context, though my default choice at this point is a Digitech RP360 or 500 into the PA or a keyboard amp (because of the high sound quality coupled with great portability and enormous range of sounds in one box). 

I offer more discussion on this topic here:
http://www.hunterharp.com/whats-the-best-choice-for-your-first-amp/

And of course, the microphone is the first thing in anybody's chain, and it makes a huge difference in the sound regardless of the amp you plug it into.  I'd go so far as to say that you should only choose your amp when you have the mic you plan to use with it in hand:
http://www.hunterharp.com/what-a-difference-a-mic-makes-part-1/

So what's the best harp amp?  I dunno.  What I do know is that it's a lot harder to find really bad gear than it used to be, and most people are likely to get good value for money regardless of which amp they choose, provided they do a little research first to find out what works with their preferred style (like blues, for example).  It doesn't take long to get down to a short list of solid choices in any given price range, and if I was asking around, I'd make sure to specify how much money I intended to spend.  A good 5 watt tube amp sells for around $200 new; if you want a Sonny Jr in good condition, you can expect to spend 8-10 times that much.  Newer technology (i.e. amp modeling technology, as embodied in modeling amps like the Peavey Vypr and Transformer 112 (Peter Ruth's fave), the Fender Super Champ XT (a hybrid tube and modeled design) and Mustang series, and dedicated modeling devices like the Digitech RPs) tends to cost less than traditional all-tube designs in a given power range.  

Regards, Richard Hunter