This is Nic Clark playing the newest Mission 32-20 3x10 amp. It ships in a few days to it's new owner.
Nic is playing at Al Chesis' Thursday night blues jam at Teddy T's in Denver on Sept 27, 2012. Nic is 17 years old. The singer/guitar player in this clip is Bad Brad Stivers, who is 20 years old. The blues scene in Denver is stacked with talent.
Bruce Collins was at the jam as well. He tells me he is using slightly larger transformers for this model, stepping up the power before clipping to about 35 watts. The tone is fantastic: colorful and textured, and very loud before feedback. Nice amp.
Never seen Nick live yet only the tube...but once his stage presence catches up to his playing level "which is TREMENDOUS", that is going to be pretty cool :)
Is that the Mission amp in the foreground? If so, it looks like a different cabinet than the one shown on Mission's website. Do you have any sound samples using an SM57 mic?
-Standard 1x12 and all amps with a 12" speaker use a 12" Eminence Cannabis Rex speaker. Other cabinets; 10" Quam, 10" ceramic Lil' Buddy and or an 10" AlNiCo speaker. Call or email for more in
That Mr. Clark has a hell of a sense of timing in that first video.. he is just playing with it.. bending it to his will. Nuance I would only expect of a much older player
MJ, it sounds great. Bruce said it is the standard speaker configuration for the 3x10 now. To me it sounded punchy and strong, but I am a big fan of the Lil Buddy speakers for harp. I have two in my Bassman RI.
The original design goal for the Mission 32-20 amps when Bruce and I started working on it two years ago was a deep tone with a muscular, punchy character and singing mids. The 3x10 has that same signature sound.
BTW, Bruce and I have agreed to collaborate on a new harp amp, but it is months away, if not a year. I can't give any details but I'm excited to be part of the project.
dted, ahh, I see... I'll try to get something up using my Bulletized SM57, but it won't be right away... BTW, Nic is using a vintage JT-30 with ceramic element. It belongs to Al Chesis. It's kind of bright to my ear; I've played it many times.
Littoral, the same could be said for any amp demo done by a good player. That is why amp makers feature videos of good players blowing through their amps.
After you listen to and play through a lot of different amps you develop an ear for what the amp contributes to the tone and what the player contributes.
---------- -Rick Davis
Last Edited by on Sep 28, 2012 2:14 PM
The other guy? Al Chesis?? Dude, he is a premier player who gets some deep tone. He's been a working pro for maybe 20 years. He taught Nic much of what he knows about blues harp. He may not sound like Nic (Who does?) but Al is still a monster. He and his band gig constantly.
(But I agree you can't really tell all that from the short bit he did in the clip. BTW, Al and his band are the hosts for this jam.)
The Denver area has three blues jams that are hosted by harp players:
-Al's jam in these videos, every Sunday at Teddy T's -My Sunday jam at Ziggies -Dan Treanor's Tuesday jams at the Outlook in Boulder
All of these jams are VERY harp-friendly. At this jam I saw at least seven harp guys. (Al, Nic, me, David, Dave, Skip, Chris, there may have been others.) I usually get 4 or 5 harp players at my jam and Dan gets all the Boulder players. Denver is a good harp town if you want to hit the jams. People dig it.
I miss the scene in Denver. I used to go there on business four of five times a year. I used to hit the jams at the Outlook, Ziggies and the D-Note. The thing that was surreal to me was that people remembered me after the first trip. Everyone was super friendly, generous and outgoing. I have fond memories of my trips to Denver. Its a place that I hope to visit again.
