"Oh yeah? Well, you play like CRAP!"

LOL. It never fails. Every time I get in to an online debate with someone about anything that has to do with harmonica (and never has anything to do with anybody’s playing ability), the other guy in the debate will get frustrated and attack my playing, spewing what he thinks is the ultimate put-down. It reminds me of that hilarious scene in the movie “The Sandlot” where a bunch of adolescent little leaguers throw down their best insult: "You play like a GIRL!"

Yesterday I had an email exchange that went like this:

Hater- "You suck. You are an intermediate player!"

Me- "Uh, yep… I’ve always claimed to be an intermediate player."

Hater- "Well…. I was wrong. You are a BEGINNER!"

Sheesh!

As I’ve written before, I am a PROUDLY intermediate harp player. I have NEVER been one of those pretentious twits who claim to be better than anybody else. Insulting somebody’s playing to make cheap points in an argument is reprehensible. It is a failure of imagination, no different than those adolescent boys in the movie.

In the last 12 months I’ve played 70 paying gigs, including one last night. That is not a big number, but it’s about what I want. (You can check the schedule in my band website to see where I've played.) This blog gets more than 500 hits per day, almost all of them from people searching Google for information about harp amps and gear. Am I the best player around or the biggest authority on all things harmonica? Heck no! But I am happy with my place in the blues harp community.

For you haters with a festering urge to insult my playing, I say, "grow up!" You’re acting like a 12-year old little leaguer.

My Front & Center Harp Microphone

After reviewing the Front and Center Mics a few weeks ago I finally ordered one for myself. It arrived today.

Holy Shit! It sounds better than I remember.

First, the feedback rejection: When I compare it directly with my (formerly) favorite gig mic -- a Greg Heumann-modified Peavey Cherry Bomb bullet with Shure CM element -- the F&C mic has the same perceived volume at the same amp settings. BUT... when you crank it up the F&C mic does not start feeding back until you get to stupid levels. Seriously, the Peavey mic starts ringing at 6, while the Front & Center mic didn't ring until 10.

(I used my Mission 5F2H custom harp amp for this test. The volume goes to 12. I didn't use any effects on the amp or on the recording. I did the test in my office at home.)

Next, the tone: My Peavey bullet is a very good sounding harp mic. The problem it has --and which it shares with all Shure CM/CR microphones -- is that it is a feedback magnet and it can be muddy. In A/B tests at the same perceived volume the F&C mic sounds crisper without being brighter. It's more defined. The notes seem to jump out of the amp and spin around the room.

Here is a clip of me noodling around with the mic this afternoon right after it arrived. Here is a clip of Ronnie Shellist playing his Front And Center Mic and Bassman amp when we did the review. As you can see from the photos, the mic is beautifully finished. The wood is Cocobolo, and I selected a semi-gloss finish.

In this photo you can see the on/off button I asked Scott to install on the mic. I can tell by the feel of the button if it is on or off. I use volume controls mostly as on/off switches anyway, so I didn't want one.

These microphones sell for only $165.00, which seems ridiculously low. The performance is truly astonishing. If you are having feedback issues, don't spend a fortune on an expensive, complicated device that robs your tone. Try one of these first.

The Blues Harp Amps Blog gives its highest recommendation to Front & Center Microphones. This is the best blues harp microphone I have ever played.

Cool Amps

At Ronnie Shellist's blues harp workshop last Sunday I got to play a couple of very cool amps. Ronnie's Harmony 420 is a 2x6L6 amp with a big ole 15-inch Jensen speaker. Kind of like a 1959 Fender narrow panel Pro, but two thousand dollars less in current price! This amp sounded Excellent, with a deep smooth tone. Not a lot of breakup, but FAT, ya know what I'm sayin'? Ronnie mentioned that this amp *MIGHT* be for sale. I already made a bid on it.

This is a Blues Box amp. I've been seeing them on eBay for years and always wanted to try one. As soon as Ronnie heard it, he said, "Chicken grease!" The amp has a cool sizzling quality to the tone, lots of crunch and grit. LOTS of character. The guts of the amp are a rebuilt Bogen tube PA amp from the '60s. A very fun amp, but it might be a one-trick pony... which is not necessarily a bad thing.

This is my two of my amps makin' friends with the Harmony 420.

Masco Update

This is renowned Denver harp player AC Blue blowin' through my Masco ME-18P amp and Epi cab. The place was packed and the joint was jumpin' at the Sunday Blues Jam my band hosts at Ziggies.

All the players raved about the tone of the Masco, including Ronnie Shellist, Nick Clark, and AC. That amp has finaly reached its potential, I think. It sounded fantastic. The amp has two old Coke bottle 6L6 tubes and puts out exactly 20 watts just as it starts to clip.

The Masco was on for several hours. The only glitch was when it stopped working for a minute, but the best I can tell is that the fault was the mic cable or microphone used by the guy who was playing it at the time. When we changed up players the amp came back to life and worked flawlessly for the rest of the night. Not bad for an amp born in 1953.

Ronnie Shellist

Nick Clark (playing a Front and Center microphone)

Buddha

For those of you who visit Adam Gussow's Modern Blues Harmonica forum, you may know that Chris "Buddha" Michalek and I had a spirited debate that I very much enjoyed. Since Chris felt compelled to gratuitously insult me and publish a bit our our email communication with each other, I'll do the same. We were discussing Jason Ricci when Buddha offered this:

"I don't listen to harmonica players that touch blues so I really don't have a personal opinion on who is best. I pretty much despise the sound of the harmonica regardless of who is playing it."

He went on to say that the harmonica has been a "curse" for him.

That is an odd sentiment from a person who teaches students to play harmonica, and who charges a ton of money (and promises better tone) for his custom tweaked harps.

This exchange supports my notion that custom harps are largely a waste of money. I'll write more on that later.

Vintage vs. Vintage

I was over at Bruce Collins’ Mission Amps shop getting some demon tweaks done to my Masco amp when I noticed he had two very interesting vintage tube amps sitting side-by-side on the floor: A tweed Fender 5E3 Deluxe and a Gibson GA-6 Lancer. Both date from 1958. Both are in perfect original sonic condition. Both have two 6V6 power tubes, 5Y3 rectifiers, and original (or period correct) Jensen P12Q speakers. I was prepared to beg Bruce to let me plug in and play both amps, but no need. He immediately suggested I do a comparison test.

The Fender Deluxe was without it’s tweed covering but was otherwise intact. The Gibson GA-6 was in near mint condition. They were both in the shop for minor age-related repairs: faulty switches or plugs that cause noise.

While the circuits of the two amps are very similar, there are some differences.

Gibson:

Fender:

The preamp in the GA-6 is a 12AX7 wired as a grounded cathode, using a 5 megaohm grid leak bias set up, it is not cathode biased... very old school, same as the 5A3, 5B3 and 5C3 tweed Deluxe but the Deluxe used octal, 6SC7 preamp tubes.

The two volume pots and the tone pot are less than 500k, unlike a tweed Deluxe that uses 1M pots for volume and tone controls. Tone control caps in the GA-6 are the same values as the Deluxe.

The phase inverter in the GA-6 is a 12AX7 wired as a paraphase driver, same as the octal preamp tubed 5A3, 5B3 and 5C3 Deluxes.

In the Gibson the plate voltage to the power tubes is a bit hotter then a tweed Deluxe and the power tubes are idling painfully hot at about 14 watts each. Screen voltage to plate voltage ratio is lower then the Deluxe and the 5 watt power resistor used for biasing the 6V6s is 200 ohms vs 250 ohms for a Deluxe and there is no cathode bypass cap on the resistor while a tweed Deluxe uses a 25uF bypass cap.

Power supply filter caps are all 20uF vs 16uf on a tweed Deluxe.

A good running tweed 5A3, 5B3 and 5C3 Deluxe will make about 10-12 watts clean and this particular GA 6 made about 12-13 watts clean with the same size output transformer as the Deluxe.

So… How does this all translate to tonal differences? There were dramatic contrasts in the sound of the two amps. I used my big red bullet mic – which is extraordinarily hot, putting out 1 volt of current when I hit a loud passage.

Both amps sounded good right out of the gate, but the Gibson was clearly superior. The tone is bigger and warmer, with a much more natural sounding tearing on the notes. The breakup was organic and closely coupled to the pressure I put on the mic. To be honest, it sounded beautiful. I would gig that Gibson amp right now.

The Fender Deluxe had a nice vintage tone, but it just could not measure up to the Gibson. Its tone was thinner and less “connected” to what I was doing with the mic and harp. It sounded slightly boxy. At one point a ghost note popped up –the dreaded boogieman of all harp amps – while I was playing the 2-draw on an A harp. The 5E3 Deluxe amp is legendary among guitar players, and I offer no argument there. This is just about how it reacts when faced with a hot bullet mic and a harp played in second position.

The Gibson had absolutely no issues. No ghost notes or cone cry or nasal tone or noise or anything. You would have to do nothing to this amp to make it a killer harp amp: It is already there.

Small amps with two 6V6 power tubes are among the nicest sounding harp amps. They are too underpowered to carry through a loud blues band, but mic’ed or lined out they are wonderful. I sold a 1947 Gibson BR-6 amp last year and I still painfully regret doing so, especially after playing the GA-6 which sounds remarkably similar.

Many thanks to Bruce Collins at Mission Amps for graciously allowing me to thrash two very valuable vintage amplifiers. Bruce is also the drummer in my blues band, Roadhouse Joe.

Hohner's New Retail Strategy

$27.99 at Guitar Center. Hohner will institute a 10% price hike in February, presumably to pay for all this packaging.

Looks Good; Sounds Good

1953 Masco ME-18 tube amp and Epiphone cab

Random Notes

-Last night I had the chance to play through a Peavey Delta Blues amp that belongs to harp player Elwood Barrett. It was the 2x10 model, an amp I’ve tried and liked before. I didn’t have a lot of time to dial it in, but I was able to get a nice tone from the amp, even though it was completely stock. It seemed I had to dig in pretty hard to get it to crunch. Feedback was a bit of an issue. But it was fun. I played two sets with the amp at a jam at Q’s BBQ in the Cherry Creek area of Denver.

-I ordered a harp mic from Front and Center Microphones. Ronnie Shellist raved about these mics, and I had the opportunity to review them myself. Very impressive. Wonderful tone, full and warm, and good feedback resistance. Each mic is hand carved, and Scott at F&C sent a couple of pics of my mic being built.

My mic shell will emerge from this block of Cocobolo wood.

In progress.

I ordered a mic with no volume control, but an on/off button embedded in the shell where I won’t be likely to hit it inadvertently. We discussed which (if any) capacitor to install across the NOS crystal element, and I think we made the right decision. I can’t wait to get the mic and start gigging with it.

UPDATE: Here is a shot of the shell, with the wood for the grill next to it.

Doin' my thang

Jan 17, 2010. Ziggies Saloon in Denver.