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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! >
my first attempt at amplified harp since 1981
my first attempt at amplified harp since 1981
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waltertore
91 posts
Jan 12, 2010
6:00 PM
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Hi All: I had my allstar band in town tonight and decided to try some amplified harp. I used a shure 57 into a princeton reverb. Walter
tore up and low down
here is one if you are tired of harp sounds
sleep Mr. wah-wah
you can hear them at the soundclick link below
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=157137
http://www.youtube.com/user/waltertore
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Hobostubs Ashlock
309 posts
Jan 12, 2010
6:55 PM
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nice job some powerful playing,what do you prefere?When i 1st started playing last year i got a green bullet looking for that overdriven harp sound but i really love Sonny boy williamson style of harp,and wanting to get my hand effects down good cause its so expressive,now i cant decide overdrive or clean wa wa's i guess if iever get the money up ill have to check into one of the small shaker mics.maybe i could find a middle sounds.that sound like a nice set up was it your rig
Last Edited by on Jan 12, 2010 6:56 PM
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waltertore
92 posts
Jan 12, 2010
7:03 PM
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thanks for listening! I started out in the mid 70's doing the amplified harp thing. Mark Werner shared what gear to get and I got it. I played with power blues bands for a few years doing that and then got to help sonny terry get around. That hit me and I never touched amplified harp again till tonight. I prefer the acoustic sound. To me, the amplified thing is too easy and limiting. Much like distorted guitar, it has an allure of power, but you lose so much in little things with distortion. It all sounds the same to me after a bit. I used my princeton reverb reissue amp for this recording. I turned thevolume to 8, bass to 10, the treble to 0, reverb to about 3-1/2. I use a thd hotplate to record. It allows you to crank an amp and then turn the master volume down. the volume on the harp was no louder than a whisper- thus no feedback issues. I had to stay about 10 feet away from the amp or the acoustic sound of the harp would have bled through. I normally use the amp and hotplate for my guitar. the shure 57 was on my snare. I don't have any specific harp mics. I put a windscreen from a AKG C414 over the 57 to keep the harp hitting it noise down. The reverb was from the amp. the rest of the recording is with a plate reverb. Doing the 1 man band thing takes my hands away with the harp rack, but I still get a clean sound recording through the same mic as my vocals. I could probably get more popular playing the distored harp sound. It seems the in thing for the as long as I have been playing. I say just go with your gut and don't worry about what people say is right or wrong. With that said, I can tell that any hand held mic will severly limit your effects with hands :-) Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=157137
http://www.youtube.com/user/waltertore
Last Edited by on Jan 12, 2010 7:15 PM
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Hobostubs Ashlock
314 posts
Jan 13, 2010
10:23 AM
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yea i been trying to decided at the next open mic jam i attend whether to use my amps or just play though the house pa and vocal mic.cause i really do like acoustic harp but also like a litttle grit now and then,i guess its best if you doing a full set or 2 to have both if needed for different flavor of sound for different songs
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waltertore
94 posts
Jan 13, 2010
12:29 PM
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That sounds like a good plan. I learned early on that playing acoustically, off the vocal mic, is a sure fire way to wreck harps because most bands will not play quiet enough for you to hear yourself. At that point all fine point advantages that come with playing acoustically go down the drain. This is one of the reasons I am now a 1 man band. Only the very best musicians can play at conversation level and have some serious vibes going. these folks are far and few between. Many famous sidemen are near deaf and play so loud because they can't hear themselves otherwise. When I do play with real live band members they have to get down to my level or I leave. So, instead of crying in my beer, I got to learning as many instruments as I could. Right now I am working on drums in a traditional kit form. Up till now I have had them hooked all to my feet so I could work the guitar/harp/keys at the same time. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=157137
http://www.youtube.com/user/waltertore
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Hobostubs Ashlock
316 posts
Jan 13, 2010
1:02 PM
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i cant play drums to save my life,but then again i would like to be a better guitar,bass,harp, player.I do have djembe,i tap on for some recordings but i could also be better with it.Its the hands doing one thing while the foot does another while keeping time.I built a stompbox but havent tried to play it much,it requires the same hand foot type rythem. allmost, thats hard for me to do,thats why i think the one man band thing is very impressive,ive allways had a hard time tapping my feet in time with the guitar,i can pretty much keep time exspecially if theres a drummer no problem,but i feel it and dont really think about it if i try and tap a steady beat while doing my guitar it throws me,whats weird is i can do it somewhat with the harp,and ive played the guitar a lot longer go figure,now if i could sound good on the harp while keeping time thats my next step lol
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waltertore
95 posts
Jan 13, 2010
1:29 PM
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Without playing an instrument, I can't clap my hands to a song. You know when you are onstage and the band starts to clap to the beat to get the audience involved? I have never been able to do that on beat. I am the same way dancing. Judy and I have been together 30 years and we once took dance lessons. I had to pull out because I was so stressed out with trying to do the right steps. But when I hook instruments on me, it all gets real easy. If I start thinking about it though, it gets real confusing. I have to drift into the song and I mean literally become it - kind of a time and space travel of some sort. But truth be known, playing harp on the rack, guitar, drums, keys, all at the same time, does have limitations. I am not able to do lots of things I could do individually on each instrument. This is why the last few days I have begun doing overdubbing. This came about via a burst of passion to become a real drummer. I wrote this the other day about a different (my way) of learning to play music. Maybe it will hit somebody in some good way. Walter
I swear if one just plays to have fun, learning new instruments isn't hard at all because there is just joy involved. No matter how bad I might sound throughout my playing days due to blindly jumping onto new instruments, beats, genres, I felt wonderful. Joyful noise is a real thing! Unfortunately as we grow older, creativety is overshadowed by the big mean critic in us. The sound is never good enough. It should always be good enough because it makes our creative side feel good. I say throw that big mean critic in the bonfire and get on with having joy
I also would venture to say that I have put in at least 20 hours a week having fun with music and not a minute on trying to learn something from a book or video. What is that about 3,000 hours a year. Times that by almost 50 years and what is that 150,000 hours(math in my head is not so good). These are conservative estimates because for about 10 years I played 5-10 hours a day. To break this down furhter I can say that when I play I hear a whole band in my head. Let it be solo guitar, or one man band. Even with the one man band I hear a real band playing in my head. This may be classified as fantasy, but it actually works in learning the instruments you hear. I know this goes contrary to the established way of learning instruments. I remember hearing stories by lightning hopkins and guys from his era that were raised on rural farms. they took screen wire, broom handles, cigar boxes, and nails, and made guitars. They would say they played music on them. Most of us think - wow he played all that stuff we hear on record on one of those things. Wrong. He made joyful noise, but his fantasy was all hearing that good sounding guitar stuff that he eventually was able to get on a real guitar. Now guys build these cigar box things with real pickups and expensive gear in them. I bet lightning's belly would be aching from laughing so hard. He would probably say- why in the hell would anyone build a piece of garbage like that when they could buy a real guitar. the power of fantasy, driven by the need to hear what satifies your soul is the most powerful learning tool on earth. I have been asked for years to write an instruction book on working with special needs students learning proper behaviors and work/life/social skills. I refuse because all it takes is applying common sense/real life consequences. set up a classroom that involves these things and you got all the book right before your eyes. The same goes for learning music. Allow yourself to hear the sounds that make you feel good when you play and you will get there instantly. The world may not agree, but you feel it. That is all that matters and as the years go on, you master these sounds via the instruments that make them. Does this make sense??? Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=157137
http://www.youtube.com/user/waltertore
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Hobostubs Ashlock
317 posts
Jan 13, 2010
1:57 PM
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yea 16 years ago i traded my eletric guitar and amp for a acoustic guitar because my so called music friends that been playing a few years would not jam with me even around the house,so i got a acoustic cause i firgured it was a better instrument to play by yourself,i havent had a eletric sence,i love acoustic guitars and acoustic harp sounds.although for certain types of music eletric is better,but i played for the fun of it but it took me years befor i started to like what i played,I got a 8 track last year and recorded 80 songs and slowly im starting to like some of the music i write,but the 8track has helped me a lot with learning,for the most part if your happy with what you play then that should be all that matters but im allways wanting to sound better,and its hard to learn natural talent lol,and theres this wanting other people to like what i play im not sure if thats right or wrong.Ive had a friend who was a little slow and he would play the guitar like crap i mean he didnt know how to tune or anything,who was also friends with a guy who sold his soul to the devil type player on guitar bass drums you name it, we would all get together and i would watch the prodigy jam then, theres the slow kid would try to play and in his mind he was pretty good,and had alot of fun with it.but the 2 were worlds apart me i was kinda in the middle neither 1 would jam with me lol.I have fun writing songs and posting them on the net with my guitar,i havent really had fun in public with it,I have had fun with the harp in public and also posting songs but more in public cause i have fun playing it live i dont have inabitions on the harp like i do on a guitar i might not be the best harp player but i can have fun and add energy to it that i havent been able to do with acoustic playing,The harmonica put fun into music for me and for that reason i feel more like a harp player than a guitar player although i could get a lot better at both lol
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Blueharper
3 posts
Jan 13, 2010
2:41 PM
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Just to set the record straight,it's Mark WENNER,in case anyone might look him up.Nighthawks frontman and harp blower.Or, maybe Walter?,it was Mark Werner.
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LIP RIPPER
163 posts
Jan 13, 2010
4:38 PM
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Dubbya Tee, I clicked on the first link. I really enjoyed that. You very much remind me of my late friend Bill Wilson. I say that because of your perspective and how it is spoken in your music. Thank you for making me smile and reminding me of my old friend.
Stacey
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waltertore
97 posts
Jan 13, 2010
5:45 PM
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yse the nighthawk Mark!
Thanks lip ripper. I will have to do a google on Bill. Do you have a site for his music. I never heard of him. Sorry he is gone. I know how hard it is to miss a good friend. Walter
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walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing.
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=157137
http://www.youtube.com/user/waltertore
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LIP RIPPER
164 posts
Jan 14, 2010
3:43 AM
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We lost Bill 17 years ago, before the internet. I doubt you'll come up with much. Mark Knoffler stole "Sultans of Swing" from Bill. What you will find in reference to this certainly differs from Bill's side of the story. He like you, sang from the heart. His band consisted of he on the harp, the guitar and of course percussion via his foot stomp and and finger slap to the face of his acoustic.
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