StevieBoyBrooksUK
3 posts
Aug 28, 2013
2:18 PM
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I've been playing for almost a year and I'm looking to buy an amp - not too big or expensive, and a mic, to play at home, but eventually with a band or on open mic nights.
I cannot afford a dedicated harp amp so I am looking for one in the region of £150 to £300. I've tried a VOX AC4TV mini (£149) but with only a 6.5 inch speaker I'm worried the bottom end won't be strong enough. There is one with a 10" speaker (AC4TV)-still 4w which I think would be better. Both amps have an 'OP' switch which allows one to adjust the input from 4W to 1W to a quarter of a watt, so that it doesn't need to be cranked right up to get that gritty blues sound. There are no effects though. Do I need them? Another amp I'm interested in is a Fender Excelsior which has had a lot of rave reviews and is £229. £310 buys me a Fender Super Champ X2, 15w,10" speaker which has everything , but do I need all of the extra effects/gizmo's? Has anyone got any other ideas?
What mic should I buy? Adam likes a clean mic and a dirty amp. Dirty mic + dirty amp - does that work? Looking at the cost of the old style Sure 520's it's likely that I am forced to buy a modern one. Which one though?
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SuperBee
1391 posts
Aug 28, 2013
2:56 PM
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Haha. I posted in that crossover thread....something like
Fwiw, IMHO you may as well save your pennies and get a decent mic and don't have anything to do with those modern green bullets. They are overpriced gimmick mics. There are modern mics which are quite decent for harmonica but I don't rate the 520DX at all.
At least in Australia the price of those is high. I have imported several vintage mics and each was cheaper than buying a modern green bullet.
But once you start thinking about the nuance of tone the mic is giving you, your in trouble. You can't stop at one. It takes about 5 I reckon, before you start to understand your problem.
Amps...effects...same applies I think. If you are thinking about it and go for the cheap compromise, you won't stop there. It won't be long and you'll be wishing you had the one you really wanted and then you'll try to get it. And then you'll know more and realise actually you really wish you'd brought a Princeton in the first place...
Kinda thing.
Effects. I got a lone wolf delay and lone wolf octave and they made me feel a lot better about how I sounded for a while. Nowadays I sometimes just put a touch of reverb on, but I also use the delay a lot. Some amps it's more important than others. I quite like the reverb on my DeVille, but not on my Princeton, so I almost always plug the delay in with that. I rarely use the octave these days, but if I was playing loud and raucous rock music and needed every bit of volume from my amp I would, because it gives a different kind of clip than my amps naturally broken up sound, and it allows me to turn up a fraction more.
That super champ has enough features to amuse you for a while and can be made to sound pretty good if you know how to dial it in. Lotta guys don't like it though. Dave Barrett reckons its about the best value amp around.
The VHT special 6 is the budget valve amp of choice on this forum though. You will end up chasing one down. I think that's where you should start. Probably the cheapest way.
Mics..yeah, honestly I'm not the guy to be advising you. I love the vintage stuff as much for its own sake, I.e. it's 'vintageness' as for any practical consideration. But I don't think a vintage mic is that dear really. Just depends how your brain works probably. Mine doesn't always. Plenty of guys swear by the modern mics and the stick mics.
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TahoeMike00
200 posts
Aug 28, 2013
3:03 PM
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zoo. Zoo. ZOO! Kalamazoo amp all the way!
...and what SuperBee said ;-)
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The more I learn about harmonica, the more I learn how much more there is to learn.
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Rick Davis
2284 posts
Aug 28, 2013
4:02 PM
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I like the Kalamazoo, too, but for the same money (or less) you can get 3 times the power with the Fender Super Champ X2. David Barrett gives it a recommend.
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-Little Rick Davis
The Blues Harp Amps Blog
The Mile High Blues Society
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Last Edited by Rick Davis on Aug 28, 2013 4:03 PM
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John95683
98 posts
Aug 28, 2013
4:07 PM
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The VHT Special 6 is an excellent amp for $250. Good tone, and loud for its size.
Last Edited by John95683 on Aug 28, 2013 4:08 PM
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Bigtone
327 posts
Aug 28, 2013
4:22 PM
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Yes do not get to excited when buying amps. Feel it out and get something youll love. I am a old school nut so I would go for the Supro Spectator or any Small Kay or Dano or Premier amps. You can get what you really desire with a little bit of patience. Super Bee is no joke, we have all been through the same story and we all look back and say man I should have got this instead of this.
As far as mics you can get a 1960's/70's 520 with connector ready to play off someone off the forum for round $120-$180. There are plenty of JT-30's around too with CM's inside for good prices. Spend the extra $50 and get the old bullet because the new ones are not worth anything. Plus the old ones have resale value so if you wanna swap it you can and not loose money.
Last Edited by Bigtone on Aug 28, 2013 4:24 PM
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Barley Nectar
2 posts
Aug 28, 2013
4:45 PM
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VHT Special 6. Great small champish amp and easy to mod. I am not a fan of new Fender products. A vintage fender Champ/Vibro Champ/Bronco is a diferent story. All are good. These amps have tone and are easier to control feedback wise. The Kalamazoo is also a fine harp amp. These amps are also easy and cheep to maintain. Yes, amps need maintance. Before you buy a mic, look at your hands. Small hands do better with ball mics or a Turner style bullet. Large hands can cope with the larger shells such as a green bullet or Astatic JT-30. Bullet mics (omni directional) tend to feedback easily. Volume control on a omnidirectional mics are essential in my opinion, to fight FB. Many ball mics have a cardoid patern and are less prone to FB. I feel a Shure SM58 is a pretty good harp mic. Low impedence mics like the SM58 need an impedence matching transformer to plug straight into a guitar type amp. These transformers are cheep. Guitar type amps want to see a high impedence input (Hi Z)Don't go crazy trying to compair mic and amp rateings on the web. This is very subjective. Many low gain tube amps and cheep crappy mics work well for harp, depending on your tone, style and taste. About the only effect you need is a good delay pedal. I love my Arion SAD1. Super Bee nailed it. Think about what he said when you have 30+ amps and more mics then you can find. Remember the gear only will sound as good as you do...G
Last Edited by Barley Nectar on Aug 28, 2013 4:51 PM
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Rick Davis
2286 posts
Aug 28, 2013
8:23 PM
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I really like the VHT Special 6 amp, but the author of this tread said he wanted an inexpensive amp that he could use for jamming or gigging down the road. That is the reason I recommended the Fender Super Champ X2. 15 watts is a lot more giggable than 5 watts. I've owned the VHT Special 6 and modded it until it sounded awesome, but it just was not strong enough an amp for a typical blues jam. Same with the Kalalmazoo amp. Nice sound, but better for recording or practice.
David Barrett is a monster blues player with great tone. His suggestion carries a lot of weight with me.
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-Little Rick Davis
The Blues Harp Amps Blog
The Mile High Blues Society
Tip Jar
Last Edited by Rick Davis on Aug 28, 2013 8:24 PM
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MakaInOz
94 posts
Aug 28, 2013
8:52 PM
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Issue 1: What do you want to play? Is it exclusively dirty Chicago blues, or do you want to cover other (‘cleaner’) genres?
Issue 2: Where do you want to play? It’s difficult to get one amp that will cover all the way from ‘home practice that won’t wake the baby’ to ’a band with two SRV-wannabee guitarists in a large club’. Small amps can be mic-ed and/or line out-ed and are easier to carry around, but might not be loud enough to work as a stage monitor (i.e. you won’t hear yourself) in loud band scenario.
Issue 3: How much do you want to spend? Does the budget run to a range of options, or does one rig have to meet all requirements?
Defining what you want this gear for makes it far more likely to result in you getting what you want! Remember that the amp and mic are part of ‘the system’ (as are you!) so they need to be ‘aligned’ towards achieving the same goal.
One alternative might be letting effects do any ‘dirty work’ and have a clean mic and amp. I use a Digitech RP350 pedal with Richard Hunter patch set and a clean mic (one option I use is a 520DX – the current Green Bullet) into a clean PA (I use a Soundcraft Gigrac600) or keyboard amp.
But I have other options, due to a bad case of GAS (gear acquisition syndrome). Favourite rig of the moment is a Shure 420 Commando mic into a ’62 Playmaster Unit 2 amp (stereo, all tube, about 18W) into a pair of 15 ohm Magnavox 10” redcap speakers housed in a tweed National suitcase speaker cab (from an old movie projector system). None of these components are ‘classic blues harp’ but together they create a blues sound I really like.
If you start with good gear (like a 'Zoo) you'll keep it forever.
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Kingley
3074 posts
Aug 28, 2013
10:32 PM
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Personally I'd buy a Shure SM57 mic as it's one of the most versatile mics in the world and makes a great harp mic. Also get an impedance converter for it. Converters are a tenner from Maplins. When it comes to amps you'll get so much advice on "the best one", that it'll drive you nuts and just confuse you. My advice would be get your mic first, then take your mic and harps around some music stores and try out every amp (whether solid state or valve) in your price range that you can find. Once you find the one you like best, get it.
Last Edited by Kingley on Aug 28, 2013 10:34 PM
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A440
97 posts
Aug 29, 2013
1:51 AM
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Since you're in the UK, you can find the VHT Special 6 on the Thomann website - great price, and they'll ship it to you from Germany in 3-5 days.
A good low-cost mic to get started is the Superlux D112C bullet. Or for a stick mic, the SM57 is hard to beat - but you'll need to add an impedence converter to plug it straight into the amp - the Audix T50-K does the trick.
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MN
270 posts
Aug 29, 2013
3:10 AM
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Kingley wrote: "Personally I'd buy a Shure SM57 mic as it's one of the most versatile mics in the world and makes a great harp mic. Also get an impedance converter for it."
A440 wrote: "Since you're in the UK, you can find the VHT Special 6 on the Thomann website - great price, and they'll ship it to you from Germany in 3-5 days. ... the SM57 is hard to beat - but you'll need to add an impedence converter to plug it straight into the amp - the Audix T50-K does the trick."
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Simple, clear, solid advice. Shure SM57 + cord + impedance converter + VHT Special 6 amp = a VERY solid budget rig.
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tookatooka
3456 posts
Aug 29, 2013
4:28 AM
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Well, I hope you are suitably confused now SteveBoyBrooksUK? I think my brain has turned to jelly after reading the recommendations. :)
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