A friend of mine told me a great story recently about finding a vintage 1950's amplifier in a thrift store. It amazes me how much equipment, especially harp mics are still out there.
Was wondering if anyone else has any good stories about finding buried harp treasure like that.
I once walked past a secondhand shop in Blackpool (here in the UK) and a guitarist friend who was with me said to me "Paul is that a harp mic?" I spun round and saw a Shure Sonodyne 540 in the window going for an absolute steal. So we walk up to the door of the shop and you have to press a buzzer to get in. I press the buzzer and this guy comes to the door and I say I'm interested in the mic in the window. He says to me "Whoa Mate! What do you wanna use it for?". "I want to use it for Harmonica" I reply. The guys breaks out into a big grin, laughs and says "I've been waiting for someone to say that to me for ages!". He then tells me quite a few people have asked about the mic, but he wouldn't sell it to them as they didn't blow harp and it needs a good home to go too. So we go in the shop and I plug it into a old Solid State amp he has laying around and blow a few riffs. The guy breaks into a huge grin now and says "Now I know it's really going to a bloody good home!" and I walk out with a nice shiny Sonodyne 540. That was a good day.
Last Edited by Kingley on May 05, 2013 12:45 PM
$50 at a used music gear store. Made by the same company that made Premier amps. Nice ratty tube tone. I found it at MusicGoRound.
But it is the only such find I have made. The rest of my amps came from traditional sources. I do visit thrift shops occasionally in search of a killer old amp but have never found such a thing. Ronnie Shellist got a very cool old Supro amp from a thrift store, but a guy who works there called him and gave him a heads up when the store took it in.
I found an old lamp, rubbed it, and a genie, a beautiful female, came out and offerred me three wishes. I wished for a custom made harp amp with great tone and no feedback....POOF!! There it was. Then I wished for a kick-ass harp mic....POOF!! There it was. Then I couldn't really think of anything else, so I said, "How about a little head?" POOF!! And that's why I wear a size three hat today.
Last Edited by FMWoodeye on Jun 15, 2013 11:07 PM
I ordered three Marine Band Deluxes from a store in Cape Town. The normal price (finding out afterwards) was R850 ($85-$90) each. They had no record of ordering the deluxe, so they made me pay in advance. I paid R800 for all three ($80-$85). I told the guy that it couldn't be cheaper than a Blues Harp, but he told me to not worry about it. Score.
The amp I use is home made. It's a Jensen 10" in a custom cabinet, which is a modified vintage 50's G&E Radio, built to the schematics of a Gibson G-10. My brother is the electronic genius, building his first valve amp at 13yo. I'm getting him to build a 20w dual 10" for me... Soon
Have an older Green bullet, but not old enough to warrant calling it an "old" mic. Don't like it really. As I'm typing this, I'm busy piecing together my home made egg timer mic. Awesome grungy element.
Our thrift stores are lame here. No real amps or mics. Hopefully I'll strike it lucky one day.
Last Edited by Jared_SA on May 06, 2013 12:15 AM
On my last birthday my wife said "Let's get you a new old harp mic". So we were headed to a big pawn shop downtown. On the way we swung into a smaller shop and I asked if they had any old microphones. the gal went to a cabinet and pulled out a shure 585, the exact mic I had in mind! Took it home and it was excellent. I use it often. ---------- http://www.reverbnation.com/jawboneandjolene
Nothing hugely special but I got a Shure Slim X 777 for $10 including shipping on Ebay a few months back. Original cord and all. ---------- Bend it like Ricci - Me
I found a mouse amp in a goodwill store. Needed batteries and a charger, which doubled the price ($70) but its a real handy unit. Portable with an 8"; I don't know another battery-powered amp with a decent size speaker. It's maybe not exactly a bargain but to me it's kinda special. Just got home from a gig with it actually. Other than that I've had a good eBay score with my Legacy head, and my first portable pig nose was another eBay cheapie. ----------
I found a silver faced 70's Fender Princeton amp at a guitar show in Detroit. It had been electronically redone as a prototype for some amp concept. Bought it for $350. Years later I had the electronics redone to original specs for about $100. Now its a great amp. ---------- The Iceman
I've scored some decent mics at swapmeets and estate sales. T-3 , 200s, American D4T salt shaker, Turner 522D mohawk, and a shure 707A. Problem is with the internet, if sellers do their home work, they price too high. There's still deals to be had out there. One must be tenacious. I'm hoping BIGTONE will chime in on this thread. Dude is the master wheeler/dealer of all things harpgear and probably has as many stories as he has gear.
I made a couple of lucky scores. My Alamo 2566 Fury amp was sitting in a local music store. It had been donated by an anonymous party to be given to an underpriveliged music student in need of an amp. Well, the amp itself weighs about as much as a 410 Bassman, even though it's roughly half that size. It would've been a difficult item to lug around for a 12 or 13 year old guitar student. So I traded my Peavey Vypyr 15 modeling amp (with a 12" speaker upgrade) for it. The Vypyr was much lighter and manageable for a young music student, and had much more versatility.
Then recently, I found an EV 630 serving as the only microphone for an overhead PA at a local athletic club. They didn't like it at all, and I had a couple of modern vocal mics laying around. So I traded a sturdy Trans Continental dynamic vocal mic with an on/off switch for the EV, and both parties were left in a more beneficial state from it. :-)
I have found some great stuff being a microphone nut job but the best thing I ever got was at a flea market called "Green Acres" here in Knoxville. The flea market is basically turned into an all mexican flea market but I walked into a booth there about 7 months ago and this old guy who I have got a lot from there before had a Masco and a stromberg head both mint and the real score was a 1957 Supro 1624t. I paid $100 for all three. The guy is a good friend and since i talked about wanting mics and amps too him all the time he said Jon I finally got you something. And ever since that time he has found me stuff probably every month.If you build relationships with these people and you help them out and then when the time comes then the favors get returned. I have not been doing it as long as a lot of you guys so I still have a lot to learn. But I am trying.
