"G. E. Popenoe" wrote: <I use a one speaker PA setup. It's a sax player trick. Add tube pre <amp, compression and some effects and you get a pretty fat sound when <you want it. ... <Now if you have to have that vintage Chicago Blues sound forget the <above and check out the rigs the blues cats use.
Note that a typical keyboard amp is a one-speaker-self contained PA system, and you can get a keyboard amp with a 12" or 15" speaker-- lots of low end in that setup.
You can take a small tube amp with a line-out (preferably a line-out post-amp section, not post-preamp) and run the line to the PA, and that will give you a fat tube sound with as much volume as your PA can handle. The advantage of doing this, instead of just using a big tube amp, is that you always have the option of going back to the plain PA for a clean sound. (And you have something to sing through.)
There are many ways to get the sound you want. It's not absolutely necessary to do it the way it was done in 1950, even though the way it was done in 1950 certainly works.
By the way, I've re-mixed my piece "In The Night," and the latest version can be heard at the Broadjam URL below. The new mix is different--smoother, less jagged, certainly more commercial. The harp parts were done, as before, on a Digitech RP200--two harp tracks, one with a low octave double. Sounds pretty raw to me.
Thanks, Richard Hunter latest mp3s always at http://broadjam.com/rhunter