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Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 11:41:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: chris moran
Subject: RE: Thicker, deeper sound

>Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 21:35:10 -0000
>From: "Duane Graves"
>Subject: Thicker, deeper sound
>
>I have a question. It has to do with a BIGGER,
deeper, richer, fuller >sound that I hear others have. A music from the same
type of diatonics
>I play with yet they (experienced players) have that
"arrived" sort of, >sound.

With regards to Post-War style Blues playing...

As others have stated, what you are talking about is
"tone" and that tone is a product of many hard hours
of work, learning to adjust the mouth cavity, the
tongue, the throat, the diaphram, etc. to replicate
the sound that you hear from other experienced
players.

That "tone" is something you can hear unamplified.
With all the romance associated with "this mic" or
"that mic" or "this amp" or "that amp" the fact is
that a good harp player sounds good playing into just
about any kind of rig... or no rig at all. Little
Walter Jacobs had more rigs than you could shake a mic
cord at. Didn't make any difference. The most
difference you could hear was when he played or
recorded unamplified ...NOT cupping the mic. Listen to
this unamplified playing. His tone was always there.
Listen to Sonny Boy Williamsons I and II. Both had
exceptional tone without amplifying.

But I will say that how one amplifies does make a
difference in overall presentation. Kim Wilson or Rod
Piazza, for example, put a lot of work into creating
very sophisticated rigs for themselves. Mark Hummel
goes for a much simpler, direct amplified sound (when
I saw him last): A stock Bullet EV dynamic mic run
through a 50s Bassman with no reverb, no pedals, no
hyper-mods etc. Yet hear them play together
unamplified and you will hear that they are three
exceptional harp players and I would defy you to
actually rank one above the other (although we all
have our personal preferences).

Probably the biggest difference you will hear is the
difference between the tongue-blocked tone and the
lip-blocked (pucker) tone. The tongue-blocked tone is
almost always much fatter and deeper. A few great
lip-block blues players like Butterfield still
developed truly incredible tone and lip-blocking does
help increase speed and mobility... but THAT "tone"
which people comment on is usually tongue blocked.
(BTW, I play mixed between the two styles.)

If you subscribe to HarpOn! you will find some recent
postings about Joe Filisko's low-tech "Tongue Block
Trainer". Really ingenious! I wish I had guys like Joe
around in 1969, when I started playing. What a
treasure!

I would also advise someone emerging from the beginner
stage to bite the bullet and invest in at least one
really good custom harp like the Filisko/Sleigh Marine
Band or one of LaVoie's Vermont Maple Wood Comb harps.
That way you'll have a good indication of what a good
harp sounds and feels like. Plastic combed harps are
fine, too, but get one that has been tested, gapped
and tuned.

Filisko/Sleigh/Gordon:
http://customharmonicas.com/

LaVoie:
http://www.joesvirtual.com/harp.htm

Plastic-combed:
http://lonestar.texas.net/~tymoyer/WorkingMansHarps/tboneharps.htm

Tuning/Gapping and stock harp repair:
http://www.chonresources.com/docs/fathead/

- --Chris Moran



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