Posted by Erik W. on April 05, 2002 at 08:41:28:
In Reply to: Re: Question 'bout BluzHarpers Cupping technique posted by Steve on April 05, 2002 at 05:45:45:
Actually I was inspired by Jon Gindick's "Rock ' Blues Harmonica" where he has a couple of brief but good chapters bout electric blues harmonica. He says that a beginner should look in the old stuff on garage-sales or in your own Cellar for old strange/bad mikes from toys, old taperecorders etc. try em all because they might sound good with a bluesharp.
I looked through my boxes with old electronic stuff and found a lot of different mikes. I first stripped a not-working headset to get a little Shaker-like mike, - but it wasnt good because it wouldent work together with my Marshall guitar-amp because of some impedance issue. Then I tried a cheap dynamic Shure-Look-alike. Its a really bad mike! - when its used for speech it sounds like you have a terrible cold or have your skull stuffed with cotton. It has really bad treble but maybe that makes it good for the harmonica, as it gives it a more soft tone.
I also use an electred microphone with battery, it gives a fantastic tubelike overdrive when playing single notes but the distortion gets too much easily, when I play fat chords. I think I will use that for homestudio-recordings, but will use the other one for jamming with my friends as it is easier to control.
I use my Marshal Valvestate Amp with a lot of overdrive and reverb, and the EQ adjusted to give a warm sound.
Also read this post by bluesharper http://www.harmonicalessons.com/wwwboard/messages/4836.html
The point is that anything goes, it seems for me to be the hardest thing to find a mike that sounds good for both fat chords and single notes. Try it all but use your common sense to avoid damage on your gear.
Best wishes
Erik W.