Re: [Harp-L] acoustic harp.

[Tom Ball <havaball@xxxxxxx>]

FWIW I always figured when one thinks of "acoustic" harp, one 
envisions players like Sonny Terry or Hammie Nixon, DeFord Bailey or 
Phil Wiggins -- players who do not cup a microphone in their hands 
and play through an amplifier; in Willie Dixon's words, players who 
"play dry." And when one thinks of "amplified" harp, one envisions a 
player cupping a bullet mic and playing through an amp (sometimes 
with resultant distortion and/or added effects,) a la Chicago-style 
stalwarts Little Walter, Walter Horton, etc.

But "amplified" and "acoustic" are terms that can be both misleading 
and self-contradictory.

Most folks would define "acoustic" as "unamplified." Webster defines 
"amplify" as: "4. Elect.  to increase the amplitude of; to produce 
amplification."

But the fact is that almost no "acoustic" players ever really play 
acoustically, and certainly no one (after the mid 1920s) ever 
recorded that way. When Sonny Terry played in concert with Brownie 
McGhee he sat in a chair and played about eight inches away from a 
vocal microphone; ditto for other "acoustic" players, myself 
included. Yes, we're "acoustic" players, but technically we're all 
playing amplified, otherwise we wouldn't be using any microphone at 
all. 

And when it comes to the process of recording, the only musicians who 
ever truly recorded "acoustically" were those who were in the studio 
before the 'electrical era,' which came about in the mid 1920's. 
Prior to that, recording musicians used crude megaphones rather than 
microphones.

Having said that however, I'm sure that most harp players have 
settled on the definitions of "acoustic" and "amplified" as they 
pertain to a player's approach rather than as a literal definition 
involving the use (or lack) of any microphone. Just MHO.

cheerio,
Tom Ball
Purveyor of the physically activated, wind-powered pitch approximater
http://www.tomball.us