RJ Mischo was in town a few weeks back and had several harp players up with him to close the show, including Phil Berkowitz, Joe Lempowski, Gilberto Arredondo. We all traded through my Sonny Jr Avenger amp with BlowsMeAway wood mic - and had a bunch of fun!
Bob Welsh. He currently plays with Elvin Bishop. He used to play with Mark Hummel and others. He's as bad as they get! I love playing with that dude. He nails the whole Robert Jr thing.
Oh yeah...That's some big boy KNOCKOUT tone there gents...Anyone out there lookin for a blues harp Amp/Mic combo obviously need to look no further, SHAZAMMM!!!
Hey Greg, Great video. Man, the rig sounded fantastic! Are you playing through your Avenger? If so, do you mind sharing how you had it set up? Were the channels bridged? Knob settings, etc.
While you're at it, Greg, what element? -- might as well tell it all! (Well, I guess "all" would include tube configuration and bias #'s , but I'll leave that for someone else to ask!)
Thanks, Greg. BTW, last gig was a Greg H. Cocobolo Brush Crystal through a Greg H. Kali II -- pure Greg H! (except for the Kinder AFB+ and Lone Wolf Harp Delay in the chain.) ROCKED! Tnx. (Also,BTW, I've got a 10F150-O in the Kali -- not what most folks would suggest -- but I LOVE it -- it's loud and allows more play with the Tone knob.) Be well.
Greg- I have one of those vintage Sylvania 5963 tubes. Very nice sounding low-gain tube. Bruce Collins gave it to me to try. Great for a Bassman-type amp.
I think we used my mic that night - although RJ's mic is set up exactly the same. As for cables- I make cables and use Belden CBI Made In The USA cable. ---------- /Greg
I listened without watching who was playing. Then I listened again watching who was playing. Then I gave it a third go randomly skipping around to different places.
Conclusion that is totally not related to sharing an opinion on the quality of playing, is that that rig sounded strikingly similar from player to player. Enough so for me to conclude that this is a great example of gear making a difference in tone. By the the insistence of many, and I am not making a straw man argument here in saying that everyone who has posted on this thread has state such, it should have readily been apparent who was playing, but it wasn't.
Everyone sounded like they were playing a wood mic into the same Bassman-type amp.
Mike - Aside from Gilberto, I've been on stage with these guys on multiple occasions. Aside from Gilberto, I seen each of these players frequently. This is probably the closest, we have ever come to sounding alike.
Do you hear a difference in this video a shot.
By the way, thanks. If I sound similar to RJ, Greg, Phil and Gilberto, I guess I must be doing something right. Those guys are all solid players.
I didn't think that sounded to unalike either. It is more distinguishable than the first clip, but again, I think both vids serve as evidence that gear, in fact, changes tone. Both clips are good examples because they are the exact same rigs and a lot of the playing overlaps stylistically.
I might be way off, but this second clips sounds more compressed and maybe has less fidelity? The biggest audible difference in the three players is note choice and attack, but not timbre. ---------- Custom Harmonicas
I might be way off with this assessment. Technically, if all the artist were striving for the same tone, then we'd expect them to sound alike. I guess a better "experiment" would be to have players with very different acoustic sounds to begin with?
Edited - changed "." to "?"
---------- Custom Harmonicas
Last Edited by on Dec 03, 2012 10:47 AM