Re: [Harp-L] a little more on gear

[Joel Fritz <jfritz666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Harpmac01@xxxxxxx wrote:

> I'm sure back in the day for the old masters if the right amp  was there for 
> them at the time, and was pointed out to them or found by them  they would use 
> it full-time, but lets not forget some real stuff here, little  walter and a 
> lot of these cats lived hard, fast lives, making money for them in  this new 
> way opened up so many closed doors to them, that this whole new life  took over 
> all their senses, they just never really thought about the amps as  much as 
> i'm sure they would have liked, and was it not little walter who used to  
> complain that he preferred to cup his harp with a mic and through an amp...yeah  
> too right he did!!! walter was hip to this, but at that time it was all pretty  
> new and still to be discovered, but walter and some others were discovering  
> it! in later years guys like sonny jr etc.would define and refine it!  if 
> walter had lived you just know he would have used a custom amp!!!  
>
>
>  
Maybe if LW were alive now he'd be using a custom amp.  Back in the 
early fifties almost any amp was good for harp.  "High end" amps like 
the Fender Deluxe and the Gibson Les Pauls were good.  The cheap Valco, 
Harmony,  and Danelectro amps and the private label ones that they made 
were good. A lot of PAs were good.  Think of how much practice amps from 
the fifties and early sixties sell for now.

You could get the kind of distortion that sounds good easily at volume 
levels where feedback wasn't a problem.   I believe that for small club 
settings everyone should be forced to play through amps that put out 
fifteen watts or less.  It might be bad for earplug sales but I could 
live with that.

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