[Harp-L] Bass amps for amplified harp



Since the end of last year, I've been playing through a small SWR Baby Baby Blue bass amp, i think it's primarily designed for acoustic bass. It has a 10" speaker, a piezo tweeter (which i turn off), a tube preamp (solid state power stage), and very sophisticated 3 band semi parametric EQ that gives me almost total control over tone shaping. Nice deep, dark, thick tone, with a little texture from the tube pre. No reverb, but I put a delay set to slap back in the effects loop since i don't like to play dry. 120 watts and won't feedback, even at relatively loud volumes. Has a line out and an XLR out, which i've never had to use.

I'm very happy with this amp. I get very, very close the sound i hear in my head. Really wonderful harp amp for my style of play and the sound i want to create. Works well both with and without the effects pedals I've started to use. And I can get as loud as i need to without fear of feedback.

Now, I assumed this amp was special because of the elaborate EQ and the tube pre. I also happen to have a strong preference for 10" speakers. But, a few months ago, due to a peculiar combination of circumstances, I wound up playing through the second input of a bass player's Behringer bass amp that had one 15" speaker (which the bass player kept telling me was an EV Black Widow) and my harp sounded GREAT through that bass rig, too.

Now, I've started to wonder if bass amps in general may be well suited for playing amplified harp. Certainly, a bass amp does not provide the distorted tone that some harmonica players like to get from an overdriven tube amp, but that's not the sound i go for anyway. I prefer a basically clean, dark, thick sound with some body and texture (and that I can make respond to my mic handling and breath techniques) and my limited experience playing through bass amps has given me just that.

Anyone else have experience playing harp through a bass rig? What do you think?

JP



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