10 Steps to Becoming a Harmonica Super Star
I've been fooling around with creating web pages on Squidoo. This one is called How to Become a Harmonica Super Star. It is a list of the steps that you need to follow to really learn how to play harp.

10 Steps to Becoming a Harmonica Super Star on Squidoo

Squidoo allows you to make a nice web page that's good for a short lesson or an interesting article. It is good for a band to make a nice profile page and any number of things. The advantage is that Squidoo pays you to create a page by giving you a good chunk of the advertising revenue. It does not have the kiddie type features of MySpace or other social networking sites. It is more business oriented, concentrating on pages the are useful. If you interested in trying this yourself, click on the link above, and sign up. 
¶ Friday, May 09, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  The Gear used by Jimi Hendrix
My friend Bobby from Yonkers (we call him Video Bobby because he video tapes our jam sessions) has two Marshall Speaker cabinets that he bought from an estate sale. They have the JHE (Jimi Hendrix Experience) logo on them and are marked serial number #2 and #4. He's been offered $500,000 for the pair, but Bobby lives the music of Hendrix and has every note the Jimi ever played down to perfection. He isn't selling. Another friend has a guitar that he bought at a flea market that can be traced by serial number to Jimi. When they Jam at a local home, they sound pretty damn good.

The link above is to Gibson article on the gear that Jimi Hendrix used. Fascinating stuff, although no harp content. 
¶ Wednesday, May 07, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Build your own effects clone.
I know there are a bunch of you out there that want to build their own effects pedals. I am ordering the Ping Pong delay kit from BuildYourOwnClone.com. At $100 it is more expensive than the cheap delays coming out of China, but more advanced than some of the more expensive delays available at your corner music store.

Check out the YouTube of their tremolo kit. Tremolo is something that works for surf and early rock, but never seems to fit with blues. I love the demo, though.

 
¶ Wednesday, May 07, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Summmer Jam at Renegades Bar & Grill
Dave Lampert writes that the Jam at Renegades Bar & Grill, Burnsville, MN is now on every Wed all summer long. It begins at 8:00 and goes until the last dog is hung (usually between 12 and 1).

Savage Audio,maker of Savage Amplifiers, Tim Ellis of Ellis's Drum shop, and LaVonne's music have teamed up to sponsor the Wednesday Night Jam at Renegade's by providing a new Glas 30, a new drum kit built for the jam, and two brand spanking new Fender Highway One guitars...a Strat and a Tele for all to use and enjoy...Come on down and check 'em out.

Dave writes:

In other news we have just received word that we are On the lineup at the Omaha Blues and Jazz Festival on July 5th of this year and will be at another club on the 6th in the area. We will announce the club soon. There are several and we are trying to get the best fit...You can monitor this and all dates at the calendar on the website through the link below.

We will be in LaCrosse again this weekend at Nighthawks Taproom and look forward to seeing our friends in the area both Friday and Saturday.

 
¶ Monday, May 05, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  One of the First Premier Amps?
This showed up on eBay. It is a very early (1946-1948) Premier amp. I am guessing the date from the fact that it uses 7C5 tubes instead of the 6V6. The 7C5 is a locking tube designed for use in things like car radios and other applications where the tubes might shake loose.

Premier used these "loctal" tubes on their Model "O" and the very early Model 50s. Since these are all 1948 or earlier amps, I guess that this unknown model Premier is from the same time frame. The Field Coil speaker also dates it very early. After around 1950 Alnico magnets were easy enough to get for speakers so Field Coils speakers were not used. The grill clothe is similar to the mid 1940s Model "O", as well.

By the way, it is usually a no-brainer to replace the Field Coil speaker with a better sounding modern speaker. All you have to do is put a resistor across the speaker power lead to keep the transformer happy. (Don't throw out the vintage speaker in case some day you want to restore the amp to its original configuration.)

OK, here you have a VERY old Premier harp amp. I'm guessing early 50s. It's not working, but I think all it needs is some new filter caps which I am including, as well as two complete sets of NOS tubes. It runs on 2 x 7C5 (locatal version of 6V6) power tubes, a 5Y4 rectifier and 7N7 and 6SJ7 pre-amp tubes. It has a 10 inch Emerson field coil speaker that looks like it needs a recone to me (Ted Weber & co. will do that fairly inexpensively). It also has a 'clicker' tone knob and a regular volume control. I also have a schematic for this somewhere which I'll throw in. I snagged this as a project for our harp player, but before I could get anyone to help me restore it he got a Gibson harp amp he loves. Anyway, this would probably be a real sweet harp mp with just a quick cap job and $60 speaker recone. It's all original except i did change the power cord and clip the 'death' cap. And the handle was missing when i got it.

 
¶ Tuesday, April 22, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Blues Harp Amps
Blues Harp Amps has some nice blogging on my favorite subject. Check out the old gibson and JT-30 that he has for sale. He's practically giving it away! 
¶ Tuesday, April 08, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Amp Show 2008
Coming up Saturday, May 10, 2008 the 2008 Amp Show will be coming to Piscataway, N.J.

There may be a couple of good harp amps. This show did not have much in the way of vintage gear or boxes of junk to pick through in previous years. If you go bring a JT-30 and and a harp and plug into a few amps and see how they stack up harp-wise.

Demo, compare, and evaluate, Exotic Boutique, Custom, Prototype, and Production models at Real World‚ levels. Test the amps, cabinets, speakers, effects, and pickups, that make up the classic, vintage, and the cutting edge of the electrified instrument world.

Over 45 exhibitors including: 65amps, Ark, AXL, Celestion, Egnater, Electro Harmonix, Fender, Fuchs, Goodsell, GoodTone, Hermida Audio, Line 6 Madd Professor, Marshall, Pure 64, Sommatone, Top Hat, Tube Wonder, Two Rock, Vox and more.

"TONE WIZARDS" forum discussion with Q&A & more TBA.

GoodTone’s "AMP BIASING CLINIC" • "Pedalboard From Hell"

40+ demo rooms where you can plug in and play at real world levels, the most exotic
boutique and finest production bass and guitar amps, pedals, and pickups available.

 
¶ Friday, April 04, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Vintage Hi-Fi Equipment EXPO
Vacuum Tube Valley is having there Vintage Hi-Fi Equipment EXPO staring this June. The dates are June 1, July 27, September 28, and October 28.

Location is Blue Lakes Lodge, Hwy 20, Blue Lakes, CA.

Located in Northern California.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view and purchase rare, museum and collector quality vintage tube hi-fi amps, tuners, receivers, preamps, speakers, books, parts and tubes. Thousands of items.

 
¶ Friday, April 04, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Masters TVA30 tube guitar amplifier class A 30 watt
Masters TVA30 tube guitar amplifier class A 30 watt

Masters has just released their new TVA30 - It's all class A and with the proper preamp tubes should be a solid harp amp. It has 4-EL84/6BQ5 and 3-12AX7 preamp tubes with a clean channel (for harp) and an overdrive channel for when your guitar friends borrow it. The 4 power tubes should give it a good bit of sound and this might be good for those medium to large venues.

The list price is $899 which is damn good for an all tube all point to point hand wired amp. 
¶ Wednesday, April 02, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Riffs and Licks - Sweet, small and crunchy
Ken Ficara scored a sweet Fender Champ "600 amp". Not the repro but the real thing. Check his blog post about his experience.

He bought this at a place called RetroFit that has some amazing old amps on sale. They are about the same or below some of the wild eBay prices that I've seen lately, and these are all clean and worked over by a tech before they sell them.


Riffs and Licks - Sweet, small and crunchy 
¶ Monday, March 17, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Metasonix - G-1000 Guitar Amplifier
Not Work Safe!!!!! Interesting tube amp head with an awful name.

Harp players already feel enough pain from their equipment, so the name of this might or might not be appropriate.

Vacuum Tube Modules for Electronic Music by Metasonix - G-1000 Guitar Amplifier 
¶ Monday, January 21, 2008 0 Comments Links to this post

  Harp Amp Taste Test is Back
Several years ago, I started kicking around the idea of a Harp Amp Taste Test. I've been gathering email addresses for a while, but I never got anywhere with the idea. The project needed more of a leader than I was willing to be. Since good ideas never die, a local harp player, Dennis Moriarty, came up with the same idea totally independently. Where I dropped the ball, Dennis found a completely new ball and is running with it.

Here's what has been discussed so far.

Sometime in the next few months, in a venue to be named, somewhere in or near New York City, there will be a row of cool amps and a pile of great mics available for testing. There will be a great blues band to back up us harp players. Hopefully it will be in a bar so they’ll be cold beer and free spicy wings to keep us powered up. It will probably be on a weekend.

The Place: Dennis is looking for a good place to hold the Taste Test in New York City. I have spoken with some people up here in the burbs, and got some definite maybes.

The Time: I am thinking a Sunday afternoon, possibly going on into the evening. This is slow time for some bars. I think the sooner the better. It would be nice if this could be done soon.

The Amps: Dennis has some connections with amp builders and has some amps promised. I have a bunch of vintage amps and I will bring what I can fit in the truck. The idea is to bring smaller amps rather than large ones. Harp players generally sound better on the lower wattage amps and since there will be many amps and many people playing, we don't really want to hear a stack of Marshalls.

Mics: I will bring mics. I have a few hundred vintage mics and I will bring a nice variety of styles and elements.

Players: I have heard from some surprisingly famous players who have wanted to be notified when the taste test happens. I don't know how many will show up.

So let me or Dennis know that you are interested and watch this space. With any kind of luck this will happen!

Contact Dennis Moriarity at http://www.myspace.com/blowintheblues

Contact me by clicking on the link at the top of the page.

Last, I have to take credit for the name Harp Amp Taste Test. It's about all I can take credit for except moral support and an email list. 
¶ Monday, November 05, 2007 1 Comments Links to this post