Blues harp live.

koneguitarist · September 2013

We allways seem to get trouble getting the harmonica mic up high enough in the mix without squealing. He uses a dedicated Harp mic the green bullet or a Hohner blues harp bullet type mic.

Any tips ?

IanSavage · September 2013

Is he running through a guitar amp or straight into the PA? Either way you'd do well to roll the bass right off as there's not really anything there from a harp...

koneguitarist · September 2013

Yep mainly mids , but its the top end feedback that seems to be the problem, either with or without an amp.

Barney · September 2013

we have the same problem with the green bullet mic ....our harp player just uses the vocal mic now....

koneguitarist · September 2013

That's we have been doing lately.

ESBlonde · September 2013

A few pointers:

A harp has quite a restricted frequency so cut/drastically reduce everything above or below the usable sound without harming the 'tone'.

Cupping ANY mic will change it's pickup pattern and rejection fields making it more sensitive to placement in respect of the PA cabs and monitors. It also changes the tone response which is why all the 'wrappers' holding a '58 wrong sound like they are nasel and middy.

The quality of the monitoring system plays a big part. If the stage is such that the harp/combo needs further reinforcement consider are you are either too loud or the monitor/PA is not adequate.

It may be that the player is just completely cupping the bullet and using the iphone analogy and changing the hand position/style will make the situation better. They are a favourite mic for this style and have been used for decades to get that growl, but a '58 works in context too.

EricTheWeary · September 2013

They are a mare.
Thinking about the people I've known/ seen who have good live harp sounds tends to be a mic into a guitar amp with reasonable headroom and then into the PA. The harp player I used to be in a band with ended up going in to the PA via a Line 6 Pod. This gave him all the control and he could add reverb,etc, himself to suit and with much less feedback than using an amp.
Experimenting with how he holds the harp- mic combination might help. The harp forums might suggest that feedback is also a result of poor harp technique - getting too many over tones, handling noise,etc, and its those that feedback rather than clear notes. Some players use a noise gate to block low level handling noise.

OilCityPickups · September 2013

I've doubled on blues harp and guitar for many moons ... Green Bullets stock are shite ... serious harp players who use harp mics always swap out the 'elements'. I use an old WW2 tank microphone guts with a crystal element ... re homed in a bullet case (about all they're good for). Much less sensitive to handling and not too toppy. Next bit of the puzzle is a guitar amp ... ideally 10" speakers I find ... with the pre amp valves swapped out for lower gain alternatives. Mic this into the PA and you are away. Harp isn't a cheap or easy instrument to play live unless you just wail into a vocal mic ... and that usually kills peoples ears with top unless you really work at the EQ ... but then you get no nice overdrive.

ICBM · September 2013

I know an extremely good harp player who I fix and mod gear for, and he uses stuff that corresponds to most of what @TheGuitarWeasel said - he has a collection of ancient public address and WWII bomber-type mics, a couple of old Astatic bullet-type mics that I've added volume controls to, a Fender Super Champ (10" speaker), and a bigger amp - I forget exactly what, but it's some sort of old lo-fi solid-state thing - which he runs the line out of the Super Champ into. The trick is to add a little gain at each stage but not too much, and on the bullet mics ride the volume control - the knob is fitted where he can wrap his pinky round it. And get really good at doing it...

koneguitarist · September 2013

Cheers all.

EricTheWeary · September 2013

I think the best harp player I ever saw live was Giles King. I was going to say he used a bassman but googling him he used a boutique harp amp based on a bassman that has six 8" speakers!

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Blues harp live.

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