[Harp-L] Some thoughts on Charlie's Red Knob Twin

["Anthony Smith" <anthony@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sam Wrote, " Like I said, if your playing has reached a high level of tone
quality and your chops are totally there than I believe the whole
compression/dirt/crunch issue falls by the way-side."  

I don't agree with that statement at all and I think you even prove it in
your post!

Why would he have, "came up on stage and fooled around with it for about a
half hour before the show with some help from the sound guy, as it was
mic.-ed to the PA." if it a case of chops alone?  Hell, why not use the
vocal and PA only as he does for a few select songs that warrant it? 

Why do Charlie and Kim have tons of gear?  Why does Kim take a minimum of 30
minutes to set up every place he plays?  Why does he haul two different amps
and several mic's and a plethora of tubes to swap?...to get his sound in ANY
room.

My guess is it "seemed" like this stuff falls by the wayside when you hear
him play and that's what makes him a Pro! He has the best chops in my
opinion and I see him struggle with extremely high volumes and horrible
feedback simply to get the Compression/dirt/crunch you feel falls by the
wayside.  In my opinion, Kim knows more about this than anyone else and goes
to more extremes than anyone else to get his sound in any venue. I'd say
Kim's tone is much cleaner than most with the correct amount of Chicago
sprinkled in at just the right spot. Is this because of Kim's personal tone
and style of play?  ABSOLUTELY. Does the amp and mic really have nothing to
do with it and it's more of an issue for us than him?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!      





-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of sam blancato
Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2009 11:45 PM
To: Harp-L
Subject: [Harp-L] Some thoughts on Charlie's Red Knob Twin

I read all the posts on Charlie Musclwhite using a Red knob Twin in Greeley.
It seems like a weird choice for a harp amplifier but after giving it some
thought I can see where it might be an excellent choice in some ways.  

First of all I have to say that I caught Kim Wilson here, in Pittsburgh,
about 3 months ago and he played through a twin also; though it wasn't a Red
Knob.  The Twin he was playing through looked to me to be a silver face from
the '70s but I'm not sure about that.  He came up on stage and fooled around
with it for about a half hour before the show with some help from the sound
guy, as it was mic.-ed to the PA.  

But here's what I was thinking:  If you have really good tone, something
both Charlie and Kim of course have in spades, and you want to project, AND
you have good mic., than a Twin might be even better than your more classic
harp amp.  I can tell you that Kim sounded fantastic, the best I have heard
him sound (I've only seen him 4 times so.) and I didn't even consider the
level of crunch vs. clean or any of that stuff.  All of that stuff was
irrelevant because Kim can play.  Like I said, if your playing has reached a
high level of tone quality and your chops are totally there than I believe
the whole compression/dirt/crunch issue falls by the way-side.

But also bear in mind that the Red Knob is also switch-able between 25 watts
and 85 watts.  That sucker has 11 tubes so there is lots of room for tube
swapping, too (solid state rectifier though).  Maybe Charlie had his
switched to 25 watts, maybe he dropped some 12AU7s into it - who knows?  But
if you just want raw power and projection then a Twin would definitely be on
your short list.   

Back when I didn't know s$*it about amps (not too long ago) I almost bought
a '70s twin because the price was right but I shied away from it because it
was SOOOO HEAVEY.  It's a good thing I did because I wouldn't have known
what to do with it.  

These days I would probably try using a Twin with my Kinder AFB+ and tube it
down and I bet it would sound pretty good.

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh
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