This is a rugged, no-nonsense cable for working blues harp players. It is tough but supple, coils easily, and performs perfectly. It is built for gigging on barroom stages.
The MM Cable is 18 feet long (5.5m) with a 1/4 inch phone plug on one end and a Switchcraft 5/8 inch screw on connector at the other. Your signal is carried from the mic to the amp by a twisted pair of stranded copper 24AWG wires, each protected by insulation. There are two layers of RFI noise shielding around the wires: A metal foil jacket surrounds the twisted pair, covered by a copper wire mesh braid that carries the ground signal. The cable’s outer jacket is tough black PVC. These cables are low-noise and long-life.
The orange shrink tube at the cable ends is not just for looks. It provides an extra measure of strain relief to ensure the solder connections between the wires and the connectors do not get damaged from hard use on stages. The price is $32.
Lots of players seem interested in lining out their amps to the PA but I don't see a lot of discussion about it. There is more to it than just plugging in. This photo is a channel from my Mackie 808M powered mixer, which is typical of what many bar bands use. It is set up for a line out from a harp amp.
From top to bottom:
-Monitor Send: You definitely want some harp in the monitors if you are using a line out, but not too much. Just enough so you can hear yourself and hear your balance with the band. I have it set halfway here.
-Effects Send: I send nothing to the effects buss. I prefer the sound of the amp by itself or with the FX pedals I use.
-Highs: Roll off about 25%
-Mids: Flat or roll off a bit.
-Lows: Boost about 20 - 25%
-Trim: Start at 0 - unity gain. It depends on many things. Dial it in so you are not clipping.
-Volume: It depends on where you want to sit in the mix.
PAs tend to be bright. If you just plug in and dial in the setting as if it were a vocal channel your sound might be shrill and annoying.
If there is a sound tech ask him/her politely but firmly to set the channel like this. There may be some small adjustments during sound check, but starting out this way will get things moving in the right direction.
Speaker comparison test, please listen and vote. Many thanks to JD Taylor for his wonderful playing. Five different 8-inch speakers in the Memphis Mini amp. Which two do you prefer? You may leave a comment here or email me at info@MemphisBluesAmps.com Thanks!
The Orange Tiny Terror 15-watt tube amp has always been interesting to harp players, I think, but it was less than ideal because of its very high gain preamp stage and its EL84 power tubes. That makes it a fun guitar amp but makes it shrill and feedback-prone when mic'd up for harp.
I developed the MM Harpman pedal with amps like this in mind, but I haven't had the chance to test the pedal with this particular amp. Today a customer ordered the Harpman to put in front of his Orange Tiny Terror. I'd like to hear the TT amp calmed down and warmed up a bit. Hopefully he'll send a video. I'll post it here if he does.
I’ve been to the SPAH harmonica convention. About half the people in the hallways at the SPAH convention are selling something: Their own playing, CDs, lessons, custom harps, cases, amps, mics, effects, etc. They are hustling their goods… That is why they go to SPAH. Yet some shitty little ass-hat from SPAH accosted a customer of mine who offered to show his own MM Harpman pedal to other attendees. No one else got molested by the weasel, just my customer.
It comes from a very old beef with the weasel years ago in Colorado. Shit, let it go, Gomer. Too bad if I hurt your feelings 10 years ago. It’s a shame that SPAH allows petty petulant cry-babies to speak for them and to accost harp players minding their own business and discussing gear with other attendees.
UPDATE: My little company - Memphis Blues Amps - has more customers than SPAH has members.
A few weeks ago JD Taylor asked me to send him a couple of the custom speakers we use in Memphis Mini amps. He mounted one of them in a 2x8 cab with a vintage Jensen P8Q to use with his Masco amp. He played the rig at Rum Boogie in Memphis last weekend and sent this video. His phone was mounted on his mic stand and was pointed at the floor monitors, so there's not much visual appeal here, but the tone is FAT! Check this out.
The MM Harpman pedal was designed to help working harp players solve the problems we face when confronted with an amp that may not be ideal. Guitar amps often suffer from issues that make them bad for blues harp: screaming feedback, icepick tone, no break-up, and not enough range in the tone controls to make it sound good for harp.
The MM Harpman is way more than just a feedback solution. It has controls that allow you to sculpt your amp’s sound: you can boost or cut Volume, Gain, Treble, and Bass. It will reduce the feedback, cut the harsh highs, boost the warm lows, and get you closer to that nice break-up point.
Using this pedal you can get decent usable blues harp tone from a bad amp. It may not get perfect vintage tone from a bad amp, but it will calm the amp enough that you can do your job and play the blues. You can use the MM Harpman to calm down and warm up nearly any amp, including your good harp amps.
$49 is a very nice price point for such a versatile tool for working harp players. The price will go up later, but not by much. I can think of two feedback pedals that sell for many times as much. I can think of another that sells for about the same but all it does is cut your mic volume by a set amount and offers zero adjustments.
Remember, all amps are different and they all will require a different “dialing in” on the MM Harpman pedal to get to that sweet spot. There is an easy pattern of adjustments you will need to make while using your ears to fine tune it for whatever amp you are using. It ain’t “just Plug ‘n’ Play,” but the improved tone is worth it.
We will begin shipping these pedals in about three weeks. Visit our website HERE.
Now, ain't this some shit? Another amp maker includes "memphis mini" and "rick davis" in his search metadata, trying to get more hits for his website. LOL
His metadata string also includes "Harp King" and "Brian Purdy." Are you kidding me? He's robbing hits from Harp King and Harp Gear?
Here is his page source. Click on the image and check the last three lines:
Lately I’ve been hearing this sales pitch from effects pedal
makers: “Change things up! Give your audience a little variety!”
Blues harp players have been doing exactly that for at least
the last 65 years without the need for any trick pedals that make you sound like a kazoo or a kaliope.
Loosen
up, baby! Don’t play with a tight cup
all the time. That big tone is best used
for effect, not for your constant sound.
Open up on the bullet mic. Don’t
squeeze it in a death grip every time you blow.
Dynamic Duo!
Change up your volume and attack on the mic. Use dynamics to be expressive. Try
this on a typical 24 bar solo: In the
first 12 bars play low and slow, staying on the low end of the harp. Leave lots of space. As you get to the turn-around move up to the
4 draw, and then the 5 draw to build tension as a transition to the second
12. Ramp up the intensity for the second
12 bars, playing more of the second octave of the blues scale using the reeds
in the middle of the harp. Finish with a
flourish. Smile and wave at the outburst
of applause.
Drop the Mic!
Put your bullet mic away and step up to the vocal mic. Play a few songs acoustically, using all the
cool hand effects. Just get all Sonny
Boy with it.
It’s all about the Chrome! Pull out that big chromatic harp for a couple
songs and blow those big chords, either through your rig or into the vocal mic.
Show it off.
Mix it up. The audience
will love it and you will come off as a harmonica master, not just a pedal user.
Recently an independent blind comparison test on the “Harmonica Gear” page in Facebook compared the Memphis Mini amp to the sound of a cheap imitator amp. 80 percent preferred the sound the Memphis Mini.
Without knowing which amp was which, the words used to describe the Memphis Mini tone included:
- better - best - pitched better - more versatile - nicer - better break up - easier to listen to - more bottom end - full round trumpet-like tone - satisfying honk and bark when pushed - less fizzy/fuzzy - less grainy and biting - smoother on attack and not as bright - more pleasant on the ears
Pound for pound and dollar for dollar, the Memphis Mini has to be considered among the best harp amps out there. Here are some newer videos showing its monster tone.
A few days ago a customer asked me about using the Eminence
820H speaker in the Memphis Mini amp. I
tried that speaker long ago and considered offering it as a substitute speaker
but I had to reject it: The 820H comes
only as a 4 ohm speaker and the MM amp expects to see an 8 ohm load at the
speaker tap. This would cause the amp to
run hot, leading to transformer failure.
Nobody likes to see smoke coming out of the back of his amp.
Any amp based on the Classic 5 platform will have the same
problem unless the builder has gone to the considerable trouble and expense of
swapping out the OT to accommodate the 4 ohm speaker. Even worse, if you are running a 6L6 power
tube along with the 4 ohm speaker you are likely to burn the power
transformer.
We have hundreds of Memphis Mini amps in use, many for up to
two years on stage. We know what works
and what doesn’t. A well-designed vintage-style
tube amp is a Rube Goldberg contraption of moving sonic parts that work
together to produce a wonderful tone. It
can be a delicate balance. Ask your amp
maker before using a lower impedance speaker or bigger power tube. It could fry your amp.
Two years ago in his blog Adam Gussow challenged me to an amp
“Throwdown” between the new Memphis Mini amp and his Harpgear HG2 amp, both
small “Champ” style amps. He wanted me
to ship him an amp so he could do a comparison test. I declined for two reasons: I didn’t have any spare MM amps to send to
anyone, and since Adam is an official endorser of the HG2 amp I didn’t expect
an unbiased result.
A few months ago Ronnie Shellist asked me to co-sponsor a
Blues Harmonica Workshop he and Adam would be presenting at Ziggies in Denver
on January 16. I wasn’t certain that
Adam would be bringing his HG2 amp since he was flying in for the event, so I
didn’t expect the throwdown to happen.
But, as soon as I walked in and carried the MM amp to the stage some of
the attendees at the event started yelling “Throwdown!” It was on!
Ronnie Shellist is an official endorser of the Memphis Mini,
and Adam endorses the HG2 so this was a level playing field. Both are monster players, and the room was
full of enthusiastic and talented harp
players attending the event. It was
perfect.
In my opinion both amps are excellent, both have great
vintage tone, but there are some notable differences. You cannot hear all the differences in the
video, which tends to compress the audio signal. To my ear – and to most of the attendees who
spoke to me later -- the MM amp sounded much bigger and punchier, with more
crunch and presence. The MM also had
significantly more volume before feedback.
The MM seemed more giggable.
Some people will prefer the HG2 amp, and for good
reasons. I was very proud of the
comparison, and gratified by the enthusiasm of the players in the room. The bottom line is this: The MM amp sells for more than $400 less than
the HG2, and it sounds at least as good.
I booked several orders that day.
One of my favorite parts of the video is when Ronnie wondered
if perhaps the HG2 amp has a little more bottom end, and most of the people in
the audience immediately disagreed with him.
You can hear them on the video.
The discussion is funny. BTW,
when you are standing close to your amp, as Ronnie was, it is hard to hear the
low end.
I am grateful to Ronnie and to Adam for doing this. I didn’t direct it at all: They ran with it themselves spontaneously,
chose their own amp settings, and I think they tried hard to wring out the
similarities and differences in the two amps.
