This is an idea that I've been toying with off and on for a little while now. I had a little bit of fun last summer while doing a little bit of busking with a guitarist buddy from high school. He played his Schecter C-1 through a Pignose 7-100 hanging from his hip, so I played through one of the old little blue Fisher Price radios from the '80s with the little wax paper microphone on my hip.
Managed to get some decent, cheap dirty tone out of it too.
But I've been thinking about one of these now lately...
About the size of a fat flashlight, and the diameter of a large bullet or a D-104. 5 watt output. Not great reviews on this particular one, but then, it IS a Harbor Freight item. But I think this could have some fun applications for harp. Has anyone used one like this before? ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Hey Hawkeye I have used something similar to this before and it actually sounded quite good. The one I used was a promotional one they were selling at a local hardware shop which was supposed to be used to shout your support for England in the world cup. It only cost a few quid but it had a nice filthy gritty tone when cranked.The horn part was a little bit bigger than the one you've linked above. However once my kids got hold of it, it lasted all of 5 minutes abuse from them.
One thing I never tried which I am now curious about is what it would have sounded like played into a mic.
For the price quoted above you may as well give it a punt. If you do try playing it into a mic and tell us how it sounds. And don't let your kids play with it!! ---------- Oisin
I've looked at the Smokey before, particularly in their little package deal with the Bottle O' Blues mic. My interest was also piqued by the cigarette box option because I have some vintage Camel boxes that would look really slick. Same thing goes with the AMPUPLUGNPLAY available at Rockin Ron's place. I've just never taken the plunge on these because other than busking, I can't see enough useful applications to warrant it.
The Danelectro Honeytone as a suprisingly loud volume for a 2" 1 watt amp, it as a belt clip, operates on battery and you can plug your regular mic in it. For the price it's hard to beat.
Martin
---------- Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Isaac Asimov
@hawkeye I don't use mine at all really, and to be honest it doesn't sound great either. Where I live buskers must be acoustic anyway. I do have a small batter-powered Vox DA-5 (not sure if they still make them). That is what I would use if I could, since it can sound good. ----------
Have to disagree with Blues 13 (another Martin) on the usefulness of the Honey Tone. I tried and I tried for quite a while w/ various microphones to get a decent tone out of mine, but ended up trading it in for a single S 20. (Not a great deal.) Admittedly, it didn´t cost a whole lot, but I found an old cassette recorder of the boom box variety to be definitely superior. Probably would an alarm clock -- or even a sewing machine -- do the same job: it has No Bass Whatsoever, not even a hint. But people like different things, so anyway, try before you buy.
I have played through a (vintage!) megaphone but didn´t like it at all. A Roland Mobile Cube is a little bit larger, and a whole lot more expensive, but by miles the best I´ve tried in the small amps department. It can even sound downright good. Cheers, Martin
Yeah, I've heard mixed feelings about the Honeytone. Seems to me that the Danelectro Hodad DH-1 would be a better choice. 2 speakers, tremolo and echo, it doesn't have a belt clip but that's easily solved. The Fender Mini amps look interesting too.
Sounds good. The amp modeling is useless in my experience. It fits in a backpack isn't all that heavy and you can run a mic for vocals and for harp if one desired. It has pretty decent bass and some effects but I use stomp boxes instead.
It is loud enough and is angled up for a decent projection.
I'd rather use a mouse but I don't have one. The mouse is tge best street option. The cube street does have impressive life from batteries 12-15 hours and can be had for around 200 bucks depending on sales. It also has a line in to play pre recorded stuff from an iPod so if you wanted to run a backing of some kind.
I use a pedal juice to power my effects. I can play all day with a few pedals no 9 volts involved. It is my power supply for playing on stage too. No noise and convenient. Recharges in a couple hours and I have played for hours with 7 pedals hooked to it.
I think for the price, I can't really run afoul with the little megaphone from Harbor Freight, so I'm gonna pick one up tonight and give it a try. Like so many things at Harbor Freight, it may not have a very long life. But at least I'll get a feel for that type of device and see about a better quality one down the road should it crap out on me.
EDIT: I also just emailed Walter to see if he has any good ideas on fitting it with a harp holding apparatus like he loves to come up with. Oughta make this little adventure a little more adventurous. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Last Edited by on Apr 09, 2012 1:26 PM
There was a video a while back of a custom microphone/amplifier someone had home-brewed over in Asia. They basically took two bullet amp shells and put them together. It was pretty neat. Couldn't get any good technical specs though. I think the person who posted it to YouTube wasn't in touch with the person who actually built it. Neat form factor though.
Just picked one up half an hour ago. LOL! It works great! Feeds back a little when you're indoors, but crank it and it has great distortion that isn't anywhere near as tinny as you might expect. The one slight drawback is the siren. The button is right where you need to cup the harp to it. So if you aren't careful, it'll start blaring a siren as you're playing. But I think I can remember to avoid it.
I'm gonna take it to my gigs this weekend. I'll let you all know how it works in a live environment. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
Okay...after three gigs this past weekend, I'm pleased to report that the megaphone works well in a variety of different applications.
First of all, playing harp through it gives a nice, nasal honk with good buzzy distortion. Because it only has a 5 watt output, it does need to be played into a vocal mic when in the mix of a full band arrangement. Unfortunately, results playing out in the crowd with it are negligible depending on the room. 5 watts in that instance just didn't carry very well.
The distortion also makes itself useful with vocals. We've recently added "Miss You" by the Stones to our repertoire. I play my harp through my full rig on this one, but much to my bandleader's delight, he was able to use it on the spoken word telephone call from the friend inviting to meet up with the Puerto Rican girls, giving the effect of a telephone receiver in the PA.
The siren was fun to use in a few different ways, such as droning it in and out on "Route 66" to give the effect of a cop driving past at high speed, and blaring it on the finale to make some extra party noise.
For my personal situation with the band I play in, the megaphone is proving to be a useful little tool. ---------- Hawkeye Kane
