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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
Gear philosophy?
Gear philosophy?
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SuperBee
7143 posts
Jul 03, 2025
3:39 PM
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I just saw a sale of a whole bunch of electronic effects and saw the seller was a MBH member. Some of his comments sent me on a trip through time.
I think I’ve been posting on this forum for about 15 years. That’s almost a quarter of my life, and most of it isn’t pretty. Pretty embarrassing, mainly.
That probably isn’t changing with this post either.
I remember seeing people post here on the topic of gear, especially effects, and always there would be some who declared FX were a load of bunk, and that they just plugged straight into the amp or even just used a vocal mic into the PA.
At first I was quite put off by the ‘no FX’ people. Probably a bit in awe but also since I’d discovered delay pedals and it seemed to make my playing less horrible I couldn’t see why a person wouldn’t want that.
Over time I managed to acquire a few pedals. It got to the point where I needed a board to mount them, and a power supply with multiple outlets. Someone even called me a ‘frustrated guitarist’ one day when they saw my pedal board.
I didn’t even have very many. I think I owned 8 pedals in total but only 5 or 6 simultaneously.
One day I was about to go on stage at a little festival and the stage manager realised late they’d forgotten to mic the drum kit. Actually I think they hadn’t even really set the kit up. We were the first act with a drummer. I was looking for a place to plug in my board but had some moments up there while all the guys are running around the drums. I looked at the audience and imagined what I was about to do and suddenly had this thought that I didn’t want to be thinking about which pedals to switch on and off and whether the various levels were set how I liked them. I didn’t want to be thinking at all about how my harp sound was being affected by those pedals.
I just packed the board away and set it beside the stage.
I played the best set I’d ever played. It was a real turning point for me. I’ve never used an effects pedal since. A couple years after that I realised I was never going to use those pedals so I sold the entire kit.
I’ve become a ‘straight in’ person.
Mostly for me it’s still about the same thing it was in that moment up on the stage. I realised the pedals were a distraction for me. It was a way for me to hide from the audience.
I’m not saying that’s how it is for other people, but that’s what it was for me. I didn’t really know what I was doing with that stuff, evidently, because I don’t miss it. I stopped using volume controls too. Same deal. I’d be constantly checking the volume control. Realistically I only ever had the volume off or up full anyway. A switch basically.
For me, all that stuff was just something else to think about where my job was actually just to sing and deliver the songs with the best energy I could muster.
I’m not saying that a bit of effect sometimes wouldn’t make my playing sound a bit better but for me it’s not worth the price. I really do better with the simplicity.
I do have a reverb effect on my Princeton Reverb of course, and I kind of just have that set on 2-3 by default but I live with that on a set and forget basis and mostly it’s forget. I probably still use the PR most but sometimes I drag out the Sonny Jr amps if it seems appropriate. It’s still kind of about simplicity there too. The PR is very basic setting for me. The Sonny Jr amps have these 3 band tone circuits and the Avenger has a choice of normal and bright channel, which I usually use jumpered so then there’s a mix of volume on the 2 channels. With the PR it’s just bass up, treble at 2, volume around 4-5 or maybe I can get a little more and then just deal with it.
The Avenger does sound nice of course and it’s got a lot more grunt so sometimes it’s just the right tool for the job.
Anyway, I think that’s just how it is for me. I’m shying away from complexity. I think in most aspects of life. If this keeps up I might even start reading books again. Simple books.
Even before all this nonsense with the pedals, right back when I started playing amplified, I reached a point with acquiring microphones where I realised it had to stop. I still have more microphones than I’ll ever use. I always feel bad about selling them though because I think they’re so overpriced, then I get stuck in this quandary of wanting to sell them for a reasonable price but realising they sell for much more and then I don’t sell them hence I still have a bunch of mics I will probably never use.
I bought a mic from Dennis G, which cost me a ridiculous sum but I figured it was worth it to kill the beast of curiosity. I barely used it for about 2 years after I bought it because I wasn’t really keen on how it sounded with any of my amps. Once I acquired the Avenger though it found its home, so I use that one. Brush crystal in a Turner Challenger. I’m not mad keen on the shell. I’ll never get back what I paid for the mic anyway, even with the provenance that Dennis provides.
But anyway, the thing with mics was slightly different. That was just chasing after a sound that i wasn’t even sure lived in the mic.
I’ve decided it kind of does, but I have what I want in a couple of mics and amp combinations and that’s all I need.
Fwiw, I believe a biscuit shell and JT30 shell really need a crystal element. A Shure bullet shell is the only way to go for me with a Shure CM type element. A CM/CR in a JT30 always sounds inferior than the same element in a Shure bullet shell but particularly for me it’s the slightly smaller Shure bullet I like. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as the diameter difference is very slight but somehow I notice. I must be on the limit I guess.
Oh yeah, and another thing. Custom harps and such.
I just can’t get into it any more. My hands are pretty bad these days and so is my neck and shoulder and my eyesight is not helping. I had to stop working on harps because it’s just too hard. I can’t charge the sort of money it costs me to do the work. I do my own work and occasionally I help a local friend but not for money. Maybe money for parts but not my time. I respect the customisers and I don’t want to disparage the work at all, but for me it’s not necessary to have a custom harp even though I like them and I do have a few. Maybe it’s the same deal as with the pedals though. I’m just trying to deliver the best energy I can and if the harp works, that’s all I need. As long as it isn’t getting in the way.
Ok, that’s all. I’m probably having an immune response to the complexity of the world. Now I’m going to take a walk up on the hill with my Springer.
Love you all.
Dave
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dougharps
2379 posts
Jul 05, 2025
6:58 PM
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Thanks for your post honestly reflecting upon your journey and gear choices.
I try to stay with the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) approach in my playing. I play a variety of genres and some blues. I am not a traditional blues player, though I enjoy hearing traditional style blues when it is played well.
I usually play straight to the PA with a mic on a stand or with my hand held Ultimate 58.
If a gig occasionally calls for an amp I go straight in most of the time. If the band leader likes delay I use delay. I don't see the need for lots of pedals . I like using playing techniques for effects.
On the TRS country video I posted the studio engineer wanted a harp mic direct to the board, so that is what I used. I try to give band leaders and studio engineers what they prefer.
Regarding custom harps, I have some and seldom use them, though I learned technique and using less breath from playing them. I adjust reed gaps on my harps and that is sufficient. I only occasionally OB on hole 6.
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Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Jul 06, 2025 2:25 PM
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bandini
32 posts
Jul 11, 2025
4:57 PM
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Great post!
These are the kind of existential musings that playing harp always brings up for me.:)
I really feel what you're saying. My harp journey is a constant balancing act between the simple and the complex, the traditional and the modern, the technical and the intuitive. You might say that blues harp has ALWAYS walked this line, and of course you could further note that this balancing act is the essential archetypal nature of the duality of our world.
I also periodically need to retreat from complexity. And then, after a time, I find myself drawn to it again.
As much as my natural inclination is to go all into one or the other and just stay there, I've found that in the end, it is the ability to move smoothly between the simple and the complex, between the traditional and the modern, that defines the greatest harp players.
To my ears, this is the hallmark of Little Walter's style, for example - also of Kim Wilson's, who is IMO the only one currently playing at little Walter's level of seamless interplay between the two poles.
The same is true of gear. At times I lose all interest in it - other times I feel compelled to engage with it. I got super geeked out on custom harps for awhile. Now I'm back to playing out of the box Marine Bands. It's ever fluid, always fluctuating. It's Life.:)
Last Edited by bandini on Jul 11, 2025 4:34 PM
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Gerry
120 posts
Jul 13, 2025
1:26 AM
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I'll widen this topic slightly to say that at present, any piece of gear imaginable is (funds allowing) available in a matter of clicks.
Also, there is more information and opinion available too. Which is great but also intimidating but it fosters the mindset of "to sound like X you MUST have X, Y and Z equipment etc"
Often the older players didn't have the choice. They had what they were given. It sounded like blues because they were blues musicians playing blues, not because they had a-b'ed 20 different mics to find the bluesy sounding one.
That's not to say FX etc are bad. You can only live in your own times. If you want to use fx, they have never been so plentiful and affordable, and can inspire fantastic sounds.
The poison is to believe there is some prescriptive way of doing things, or some mythical holy island of tone.
Should you find yourself washed up onto a shore of such a place it may be sobering to realize that you are standing on the opposite coast of the island you started out from.
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Gnarly
Alternatetuning
3198 posts
Jul 14, 2025
7:45 PM
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I did a gig a couple of months ago playing NO GUITAR, only harmonica and vocal, using a harmonizer and loop pedals.
It was fun, but not something I give the audience routinely.
I use a lot of electronics in my solo act, but the harmonica (mostly chromatic) just goes thru my vocal mic.
I think that if you are having fun, the audience is inclined to go along.
Edit: Dave, sorry to hear that harp tech stuff is becoming burdensome, but thanks for the good work you have done. You inspired me to start a new thread!
Last Edited by Gnarly on Jul 14, 2025 7:33 PM
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SuperBee
7145 posts
Jul 24, 2025
1:31 AM
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Thanks to Phil and Doug for the response via email. Sorry I didn’t reply immediately. I keep forgetting and gradually the stuff that hits the mailbox has pushed things off the at a glance summary.
That spam filter is kinda strange hey Phil. Stops real members from being able to post but apparently does very little to stop spammers.
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