SJ 410 SS Amp

My friend Tony Smith works out his SJ 410 SS amp at a blues jam. Check out the great tone and musicianship.

He is using his Sonny Jr. "Super Sonny" 410 amp and a Chuck Gurney custom bullet mic with a Shure Black Label element. There are no pedals or effects, and no editing on the recording. It was recorded with a Zoom H2 hand-held digital recorder and this is the way it sounded in the room. Suh-WEET!

Sounds like a really fun jam; wish I woulda been there.

I finally did it...

I paid $100 for a blues harmonica; a Seydel 1847 Silver, the harp with the stainless steel reeds and white plastic comb. The out-the-door price at Guitar Center was $97.55.

Last night I blew out the 5 draw reed in my all time favorite A harp, a Hohner Marine Band Deluxe. It was the second time I'd blown the same reed in that harp; I had Victor Creazzi replace the reed once before. Fifty bucks to buy the MBD harp and another fifty to repair it, so I had a hundred into that harp already.

The Seydel sounds great, but not as great as the loud, singing Marine Band Deluxe. But since it has the stainless steel reeds my hope is it will stay in service longer.

The weird thing is, I blew the reed last night playing a gig with my acoustic blues duo. That is mostly low intensity playing into a Shure SM57 on a mic stand, plugged straight into the PA board. I'll try futzing with the reed, but I'm pretty sure I'll be giving Victor another call and another $50.

Since I have a gig tonight at the Mile Hi Blues Festival KickOff Party, I wanted a really good harp, and nobody sells the MBD harp over the counter around Denver. So, this was an excuse to try the Seydel 1847. I hope I don't blow it out in the first set tonight. That would depress me.

UPDATE: Well, I didn't blow out the Seydel 1875 Silver the night I wrote this article. It didn't happen until last night, Sept 3, during a gig with my acoustic blues duo. The 4-draw reed went flat, a reed I usually do not abuse. The harp lasted less than a month. I gigged it nine times.

The reed failure may well have been my fault; I might have overbent the 4-draw. Regardless, Rupert Oysler -- head of Seydel USA --generously offered to repair the harp as a courtesy. I have known him to do this for other players as well. The reeds technically are not under warranty. If it happens again I will be happy to pay for the repair.

After playing the harp for a month I can tell you it is and exceptionally good harp. The tone and action are beautiful right out of the box. It has a nice loud sound without being jangly. The harp has a polished feel in your mouth.

When I get it back (Rupert promised a quick turn-around) I'll break it in more gently and take better care of it. it is a very fine instrument.

More Harp Cases

Sent in by reader MD. I like that washboard necktie!

Harmonica Maintenance for the Complete Moron (ME!)

So, I've been making it a habit to sit down every week to work on my gig harps. Nothing fancy: I take them apart, clean them, and gap the reeds. If I hear a buzz in the reed I scrape the slot sides to be-burr. If the reed is not properly responsive or seems "airy" I do a tiny bit of embossing on the reed plate.. That's it... nothing fancy. I haven't even tried tuning a reed yet.

The result is my harps sound better and last longer. I doubt that is entirely because of my feeble attempts at harp maintenance... more likely I am playing less hard (high volume and excessive bends) because I'm working on my harps now. I used to toss a harp just because it had a buzz or sticky reed that could not be fixed with a quick rinse.

Winslow's book -- Harmonica For Dummies -- got me started. I bought the Lee Oskar tools (excellent kit) which also comes with a good set of instructions. Maybe one day soon I'll buy a tuner and actually make my harps play in tune. Wouldn't that be something!

Sneak Preview: MegaTone Wezo-45 Stack

Visit Megatone Amps here.

Click here to view David Barrett's video review of the MegaTone Wezo-45 harp amp.

Harp Cases

I use the venerable old tweed Fender harp case… The Mississippi Saxophone Case. Been using it for years. It’s a little small for me, but I like the mojo. For every gig it sits on top of my Charlie Musselwhite-endorsed old wooden barstool.

You can see what I carry in the case: A Peavey H-5C Cherry Bomb harp mic, customized with a hot Shure CM element, better connector, and upgraded volume pot. The only part that is still Peavey is the shell, which I like because its large cavity gives a good low-end tone, and the large shell fits well in my big hands.

Around the mic is a Planet Waves cable. The red thing on the lower left is a small Maglite flashlight. Next to that is a clothespin used to hang the set list (the white sheet in the case lid).

The black thing in the middle slot is the belt pack for my Line 6 X2 XDS95 Digital Wireless unit. Under that is a small chamois. The harp tray on the right has the harps I use most often with my band, Roadhouse Joe. I mark the key big so I can see it on a dark stage.

This pic shows the lower part of the harp tray, where I keep alternate harps and a couple of backups in A and D, the most common harps to blow out during a performance. I keep a full kit of new backup harps in a gig bag behind my amp on stage.

The Ol’ harp case has served me well, but it is kinda small and aging a bit. I’ve been looking around for a replacement, and looky here what I found: The MegaTone Wezo Harp Case -- The last harp case you’ll ever need:

This bad boy is coming soon from the good folks at MegaTone amps, makers of the excellent Wezo 45 harp amps. (I’ll have a comprehensive hands-on amp review soon).

The revolver does not come with the case. Too bad! I don’t own a wheel gun. For concealed carry here in Colorado I prefer my Walther PPK.

[NOTE -- PPKs are evidently popular with blues harp guys. Here's a pic sent in by a reader.]

UPDATE: More photos from Mike Wesolowski.

Rick's Licks -- Random Thoughts

-In 3 of the last 4 years, the losing pitcher in the Baseball All Star Game has been a San Diego Padre. That is epic fail.

-In Sara Palin's commentary published yesterday in the New York Times she proved one thing: She does not understand Cap and Trade at all.

-Tom Ball's book and CD about Big and Little Walter Harp Licks is a goldmine of inspiration for blues harp players.

-At the Blues & Brews Fest in Denver last weekend, some harp player called "Sonny Boy" sat in with the Delta Sonics.

That's guitarist Eric Boa's 5-year old son. He's been playing harp since he was two, and he sounded amazing. His tone was excellent. Watch out for this kid!

-Here is another guy called Sonny Boy. I love this vid.

Vintage Supro 1690 amp

My friend Chris over at Gravity Music Gear has a very interesting amp up for auction on eBay: a 1962 Supro 1690 2x10 combo amp. This is a 2x6L6 amp with two vintage Jensen ceramic speakers. Jimmy Page is reputed to have used a Supro 1690 amp in studio for the early Led Zeppelin albums.

This is a very nice harp amp at a good price: Chris has the Buy It Now at only $600. There are five days left in the auction as I write this. Somebody is gonna get a cool old amp for not much money. I'd snap it up but I'm already set with vintage 2x6L6 harp amps....

Kendrick Texas Crude harp amp

In a long and rambling post on Harp-L a few days ago, Gary Onofrio -- who calls himself Sonny Jr. -- had this to say: "Kendrick ripped off tons of harp players with his Texas Crude."

Whoa! That is pretty strong stuff from a guy who gets so angry when his own products are critiqued.

I'm here to stand up for the Kendrick Texas Crude amp. I've played both early and recent examples and they are outstanding harp amps. Great tone and crunch. You can lean into them to get some hair on the notes. Wonderful warm, horn-like tones. Very feedback resistant. What is Onofrio talking about?

Harp-L members have praised the Texas Crude amp: Here and Here.

Paul Orta, a good Texas harp player who gets tremendous tone, helped Kendrick design the amp in the mid-90s. It is interesting to note that the original name for the amp was the Kendrick Texas Crude Sonny Boy, before Onofrio had ever sold a "Sonny Jr." amp.

I doubt Gerald Weber of Kendrick Amps "ripped off" anybody. He seems like an extremely straight shooter to me, and he's been in business a long time on the strength of his reputation. I'll ask him about this...

UPDATE: Response from Gerald Weber at Kendrick Amplifiers-

Dear Rick,

Thanks for your most kind and thoughtful email. The link to that libelous post had already been brought to my attention in emails received from Kendrick Amp users. I have seen this childish behavior from competitors quite a bit in my 39 years of running successful businesses. Our sales are obviously killing them. When you are successful, there will always be someone that feels threatened by it. The simple truth: I have been building the Texas Crude Harp Amp exactly the same way now since 1993, when it was initially introduced to the world as the first Harp Amp.

We have sold well over 1,000 units and sales are still strong. As I write this email, 2 Texas Crude Harp amps are on my shipping dock, awaiting shipment to their lucky owners and another order came in yesterday for one. Another truth: We haven't spent a dime in advertising these amps in over 15 years. The word-of-mouth advertising reached its critical mass as a self-fulfilling cycle. So our orders come from people that hear the Texas Crude Amp somewhere and want to own one for themselves, or they have a friend that owns one and recommends it.

Nuff Sed!

Kindest Personal Regards,

Gerald Weber

President/owner

(512) 932 3130

Charlie Musselwhite at the Greeley Blues Jam

I headed up North this afternoon to catch Charlie Musselwhite's set at the Blues Jam, Greeley's summer blues festival. Charlie's tone was superb; huge and rich.

He was playing through an unmodified Fender Red Knob Twin amp, known as the Evil Twin. Musselwhite used the same model amp to record his recent album "Delta Hardware." The amp is a high gain beast; a super loud guitar amp that just does not seem like a good choice for harp. But Charlie is, well... Charlie. He gets good tone with anything.

He opened his set with the song River Hip Mama, which happens to be the same song my band Roadhouse Joe opens every show with. Standing 20 feet in front of Charlie Musselwhite and listening to him play that song was thrilling and inspiring. His encore at the end was Christo Redentor. Everything in between was a clinic in third and fourth position harp mastery.

The picture above was taken tonight with my cellular phone, so the quality is not first rate. However, it clearly shows the Fender Evil Twin amp.

UPDATE: Gary Onofrio, the maker of the "Sonny Jr." harp amps, claims Charlie Musselwhite as an endorser of his products. He explains on Harp-L that Musselwhite uses different amps only when "he has to fly." I checked with the organizers of the Greeley Blues Jam and found that Charlie Musselwhite specifically requested the Fender Red Knob Twin amp OR Sonny Jr. Cruncher weeks before the event.

UPDATE 2: Here are some photos taken at the Blues Jam by blues bass man Pierre Allard: