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:

The Fender Blues Junior revisited

I’ve had a couple of close encounters recently with Fender Blues Juniors used as harp amps and I was impressed enough that it warrants a blog update. As many of you know, I have been skeptical of the BJr in the past because its high gain guitarish nature makes it unsuitable for the kind of crunchy harp tone I like. Also, newer amps powered by EL84 tubes don’t produce the tone I prefer.

A friend who is a beginner at amped playing asked me to help set up his BJr. The only mod we made was trying a 5751 in place of the 12AX7 tube in the preamp socket. We fiddled with the controls and got a very satisfying tone with these settings:

-FAT switch Off (It is evil for harp)
-Volume on 50 percent.
-Bass dimed
-Mids rolled off a bit, say 40 percent
-Treble rolled off all the way
-A little reverb, maybe on 2
-Master control is used to set the amp’s loudness.

The tone was surprisingly good and feedback resistant. There was plenty of volume. While the tone was not as crunchy and organic as I like, I would totally gig this amp with no problems. It is worth noting that it sounded a lot better with my gig mic – a Greg Heumann modded Peavey Cherry Bomb bullet mic with Shure CM element – than it did with another bullet mic I tried. The Cherry Bomb has a deeper tone due to it’s bigger cavity, thereby ameliorating some of the BJr’s brightness.

The next step for this amp is a 12DW7 tube in the phase inverter socket to give it slightly more grit. I’ll report on the results.

The other Fender Blues Junior I tried belongs to Victor, a guy known to many harp players around Denver and across the country. I played his BJr at the Boulder Outlook blues jam last week. He has modified the amp in ways I can’t completely describe, telling me it has a new gain stage. I know it has stock tubes and speaker. It sounded great, with more body and thickness than your standard BJr. When Victor played it with his EV RE-10 mic it was clean and pleasing. When I played it I found it needed a bit of pushing to get it to tip into warm distortion, but it was all very controllable and nice.

If you want details, ask Victor. He is also a first rate harp tech. He replaced a blown reed in my Hohner Marine Band Deluxe harp in A, and chamfered, arced, embossed, and tuned the harp. It is the best-sounding, nicest playing harp in my collection. Victor is an artist.

UPDATE: Here is a clip of Colorado blues harp player Mojo Red playing through a Blues Junior with his band TeraBlue. He retubed his amp using JJ tubes (12AY7 in V1; 12DW7 in phase inverter socket) and swapped in a Weber 12A100 smooth cone alnico speaker. Nice tone!

5F2H Amp by HarpGear!

Actually, Brian Purdy at HarpGear built a 5F2H kit a few years ago to check it out and eventually sold it. The amp popped up on Harp-L and got snapped up immediately. The 5F2H is pound for pound and dollar for dollar the best sounding harp amp anywhere, and any amp built by Brian is a gem.

The guy who bought it is named Paul, and he and I have been emailing back and forth about the care and feeding of a 5F2H. Here is a link to the pictures posted by the guy who sold the amp:

http://www.walkerdata.com/harpgear/harpgear.htm

Nice! I like the tweed cab, but I prefer my snakeskin and 12-inch speaker.

I'd like to hear from other 5F2H owners. We should start a club or something...

Review: Line 6 X2 Digital Wireless XDS95

I've gigged with the Line 6 X2 Digital Wireless several times now, and I'd like to present a full review of its performance: It's good!

It sounds great. I honestly can't hear any difference between it and a cable. This thing is digital, so it is sending just numbers across the airwaves, not an analog music signal. There is no squelch and no static. I clip the transmitter to my belt, plug in my bullet mic, and the sound that comes out of my amp is exactly as you would expect with a direct cable.

What it lacks compared to more expensive competitors is operating range. It is listed as having a range of 150 feet. I've heard from other users that the range is more like 100 feet. I've personally never wandered far enough away from the stage to lose signal, and I know I've hit that 100 foot range with no problems. More expensive wireless units have a stated range of 300 feet. I don't know why you'd ever want to play while 100 yards away from the stage.

The XDS95 consists of a receiver the size and shape of an effects pedal, so it fits nicely on your pedal board. I power it with a One Spot adapter so there is no hassling with batteries.

The transmitter is about the size and shape of a deck of cards, and requires a 9-volt alkaline battery. Line 6 claims a battery life of about 11 hours. I've gotten two gigs on a new battery (about 9 hours) with no problems.

There are no antennas on either unit. They seem sturdy and well made. There are 5 selectable frequencies on each unit, so you can have 5 of these on your stage with no interference from each other. The guitar player in Roadhouse Joe uses an identical X2 and he loves it, although his battery life has been a little shorter than mine for whatever reason.

The Line 6 X2 Digital Wireless XDS95 is available from Guitar Center online or behind the accessories counter in their stores. I bought mine at the GC on Colorado Blvd. in Denver. They are marked at $199.99, but they will deal.

Walking around the club while playing is thought of by some as high cheese. Maybe so, but it is still fun. The biggest benefit of the wireless is not stepping on my cable and unplugging myself 2 or 3 times during a show. This X2 unit works very well for not a lot of money. That earns it the Blues Harp Amps Blog seal of approval.

Jason Ricci workin' his Delay Pedals

This is great. Jason sent me a heads-up on a new YouTube vid he made that compares two good delay pedals: The BBE Two Timer and the vintage Boss DM-2. Beyond being an interesting comparison, it is a quick lesson in how to set up your pedal.



In the comments on YouTube, Mike asked what the exact settings were and Jason shot back with this: "Man come on mike ...Just mess with the thing for two seconds till it sounds good...My settings would be different with different pedals and a a different amp...unless you got the exact same ferrets as I do then you need to weasel your rhinocerous n shit." Yep, ya gotta weasel your rhinocerous...

What I noticed is that Jason uses more repeats than I do... I have the "Repeats" control on my delay pedal all the way down so there is only one repeat: a "slap back." Jason and Adam Gussow both use more repeats and slightly more time. So I plugged in and weaseled my rhino and dang... that sounds pretty good! Maybe Jason and Adam know something 'bout harp tone.

I'm gonna try this at our gig Wednesday night at Herman's in Denver, but the ferrets in that room may be different than at home. We'll see how it sounds.

The Sonny Boy Amp

Suitcase amps for guitar and blues harp are not new. Back in the golden age of Chicago Blues there were a few examples of cool amps like this. The new Sonny Boy amp made by Chris Null here in Denver is not a toy, nor is it a nostalgic trinket. The Sonny Boy amp is the real deal with some mojo goin’ on.

Inside, the Sonny Boy amp is hand wired, point-to-point, with good quality components. The tubes are JJ Tesla, the speaker is an 8-inch Jensen. The circuit is a clone of a tweed Champ, creating about 5 watts of barky tone into a 4 ohm load.

The exterior is excellent quality. In these pictures I’ve placed my Fender Mississippi Saxophone case next to the Sonny Boy for reference. They appear to be exactly the same, perhaps built by the same manufacturer. The amp case is sturdy and very cool. The tweed on the case is not lacquered, a look I actually prefer.

How does it sound? In a word, Great! It’s a Champ clone, baby… If you like the sound of blues harp through a Champ (as I do) you’re gonna love the Sonny Boy. Click here for a brief sound clip.

In the sound clip I’m playing the amp in Chris’ store, Gravity Music Gear, just as you see it in these pictures. I recorded it with a Zoom H4, playing a stock Hohner Special 20 harp through my bullet mic with a Shure CM element.

The speaker in the amp I played was a Jensen Mod, which sounded surprisingly good but just a tad bright. I suggested to Chris that harp players might prefer the smooth-coned Weber Signature ceramic 8, and he agreed to offer that option. The amp had a JJ Tesla ECC81 preamp tube, a 12AT7 variant, and it sounded good. I don’t generally care for the AT7 as a preamp tube, but it was a good match in the Sonny Boy. It was not peaky or shrill or overly prone to feedback.

While playing I did not hear any noise or buzzing from the hardware on the amp, such as the handle or clasps.

This amp is cool. In looks and tone it is pure vintage. You can wow ‘em with the look and style of this amp without sacrificing tone. And get this… The price point for the Sonny Boy amp is less than $600.00.

Here is the website for Blues Luggage, the maker of the Sonny Boy Amp.

Pedal Board Redux

At our gig last night at the Little Bear Saloon up in Evergreen, CO, I tried out my latest minimal pedal board. Yep, I've gone 'round and 'round on the whole pedal thing and now I'm back in the effects camp.

As you can see from the picture, I'm using only the Boss GE7 EQ pedal and the cool little Delta Lab digital delay pedal. (BTW, it's made by Texas Instruments.) I use the settings as you see them: A slight bump to the mids and a very slight cut to the extreme lows and highs on the EQ pedal, and a small slap-back on the delay. I thought it sounded great. So did my bandmates and the sound tech at the venue.

The pedals are in the inexpensive Boss BCB-30 pedal board; very convenient. The top snaps on and it folds up like a briefcase.


Pedal Board Update: I added a Line 6 X2 wireless rig:

The guitar player in Roadhouse Joe (Scott Mishoe) and I have been thinking about going wireless so we went to Guitar Center and tried out the little Line 6 X2. I was interested in it for a couple of reasons:

-Moderate cost ($199 but we cut a deal for buying two)
-Small size receiver fits in my bedal board
-It operates above 900mhz, so the new FCC bandwidth won't interfere.

So far it is performing as advertised: No drop-outs or static at all. When I A-B'ed it against a cable I could not hear any difference. It gets all the grit and overtones from my bullet mic. I can play from any room in my house. (It's raining outside so I didn't try that.) I'll thrash it out at band practice tomorrow and see how it does.

At the gig at Little Bear last week I stepped on my cable twice and unplugged my mic, so I'm really looking forward to being unleashed!

A Fun Gig Last Night - Dueling Harps!

The Roadhouse Joe band played a club in Golden CO last night, and we had a guest singer for the first set. Our regular singer had to arrive late, so we invited A.C. -- a guy who fronts another local blues band -- to sit in.

He's also a fine harp player. He builds and plays what he calls a Diminished harp. Here's how he described it to me in an email:

The Diminished harp I use now is made from the Marine Band 12 Hole Soloist (the 364). The Diminished tuning I use starts with C (same C as the first hole of a regular C harp). The layout is below (first column are blow notes, second are draw notes): I'm not sure if you can call the positions the same on it as on a regular diatonic. The idea behind the tuning is that the draw notes are two half notes above the blow notes so you can bend each draw note a half, and each blow note is a half a step above the previous draw note = you get a chromatic scale using regular bends. All patterns repeat each other so learning the three patterns (blow pattern, bend pattern and draw pattern) allows you to play all twelve keys with a single harp. Intonation is a bitch - I struggle with that but forcing myself to do it :)

1 C, D
2 Eb,F
3 F#,G#
4 A, B
5 C, D
6 Eb,F
7 F#,G#
8 A, B
9 C, D
10 Eb,F
11 F#,G#
12 A, B

I think Dan Treanor uses a similar harp. A.C. sounded great and the contrast between his cool chromatic-ish playing and my second position honking is kind of cool. Here's a clip recorded with a Zoom H4 laying on one of the tables.

http://www.roadhousejoe.com/files/07-tore-down.mp3

AC is playing through an EV RE-10 mic with the Greg Heumann inline volume control into a stock Fender Bassman reissue wth 4 alnico Blue speakers. His RI Bassman is an early model, I think from 1989; pretty beat up and cool looking. It has that fat Bassman tone.

I'm playing my bullet mic with Shure CM (also from Greg Heumann!) into the 5F2H harp amp, my usual gig rig. Both amps are mic'ed into the PA system.

It was a very fun show. A.C. plays with the band Mojambus. Catch one of his shows if you can... The dude is a blues hound.

Roadhouse Joe shows coming up

Mar 26 2009 -- 9:00P Hiccups 2 Sports Bar & Grill Thornton, Colorado
Apr 2 2009 -- 9:00P Buffalo Rose Golden, Colorado
Apr 14 2009 -- 8:00P Little Bear Saloon Evergreen, Colorado
May 9 2009 -- 9:00P Zephyr Bar & Grill Aurora, Colorado
May 20 2009 -- 7:30P Herman’s Hideaway Denver, Colorado
Jun 20 2009 -- 9:00P Zephyr Bar & Grill Aurora, Colorado
Jun 27 2009 -- 4:00P MS 150 Bike Ride Fort Collins, Colorado

More info at Roadhouse Joe's Myspace site.