Amplified Harmonica Notes

Catfish here at Harmonica Notes. Wen’t out and picked up a new harp yesterday. I wanted to try out the Hohner Hot Metal harps to see how they play. I figured I’d do a review, but sadly, they didn’t have them in the keys I was looking for. Oh well, I’m sure I will find one somewhere to check out for a review. I’ve heard good things. I bought a new Blues Harp. A B harp so I can play along with a few SRV songs. As I remember, Texas Flood is in F#.

I took a little time to try out mics and an amp. I’m not serious about amplifying just yet, but I wanted to mess with it a bit because I will eventually. I tried a big metal monstrosity that I though looked badass. While it looked badass, I could barely hold it in my hands, and I have big hands. I put that one away real quick. I thought about all I have heard about amplifying Harps and I asked if they have a Shure 520DX Green Bullet Mic. They said they don’t carry them anymore but checked and found one in the back room. The first 3 things I like about the Green bullet, ignoring important things like sound and sturdiness, it has its own cable with a 1/4″ jack which I really liked. You don’t need a separate cable for it. I really liked that. Not having to get a cable makes it easier to get into amplified harmonica playing. The second thing I liked is the little volume knob underneath it. I will probably have it jacked up all the time but having the ability to adjust the volume is cool. It also means if I’m sharing an amp with a guitarist, I can control my volume without effecting the guitarists. Third, I like the feel of it. I wrap my hands around it and can easily hold the harp.

After some fussing around, we hooked it up to a Fender 57 Champ Tube Amp to see how it sounded with my new harp. I let the amp warm up and started playing. I played a few licks and messed around with the volume on the mic. It sounded cool. I definitely liked playing through it. I felt old school. I think, in the distant future, I will be picking up one of these mics. Not today though, I have a lot of work to do on technique before I dive into amplified playing.