RP Tip #1: rearranging the patches in your patch set
There are lots of reasons why you might want to rearrange the order of the patches in a set. For me, it’s usually because I’m using two or more patches in a song, and I want them side by side so I can move between…
Kudos for my RP patch set
In the last few days, people have been writing to the Harp-L list to talk about how much they like the patch set I put together for the Digitech RP 250/255/350/355. Glenn Woodhouse of the ColdRail Blues Band said some very nice things, which we…
What’s the best embouchure for harmonica?
A novice harmonica player posted this message to the Harp-l list: As a beginner, I pucker for everything, and find tongue blocking to be very difficult. Is it true that the great Chicago blues tone can only come from tongue blocking? I think I read…
In Praise of Jeff Newsom
Jeff Newsom is a fine harmonica player based in Driggs, Idaho. I met Jeff in August 2001 at the Grand Targhee Bluegrass Festival, where he offered (with no prompting from me) to introduce me to Tony Furtado, with whose band Jeff and I ended up…
Gear Review: About the Bulletizer
The Bulletizer is made by Greg Heumann of Blowsmeaway Productions. In a nutshell, it’s an easy-to-install add-on to a Shure SM57 or 545 mic that creates a Bullet-mic-style face for the mic, which in turn makes the mic behave more like a Bullet mic in…
The Best Harp Player I Met at SPAH
… is a young Polish musician named Bartosz Leczycki. He played brilliant diatonic harmonica in lots of different styles, always very fresh and original, with very highly developed technique and harmonic conception, on a par with anyone I’ve heard. (I didn’t hear his chromatic playing,…
Abstract
I was playing with the looper the other day, and I created the abstract piece you hear below. This is a strange, abrasive, and sometimes thrilling piece. I’m not sure what sounds exactly I used on this. The first layer, alternating G and F chords,…
A couple of new sounds with dual amp modelers
I was jamming yesterday, using a 2-amp modeler setup: RP355 for the main tones, and RP255 for global effects on top of that. I liked what I heard, so I recorded a couple of riffs. Here they are. RP355 with Matchless amp model and autowah,…
Gear Report: Peavey KB2 keyboard amp/PA
I just bought a Peavey KB2 amp as a one-stop solution for amping my harps and vocals in small rooms. I’m very impressed with this piece, which is a nearly ideal amp in many ways, especially for harmonica players using amp modelers, or those who…
Practicing with the looper
I started working with my Boss RC-2 looper today, prepping for the gig at Alpine Wines. I find that it’s very effective to set up a simple 1 to 2 bar chord vamp for accompaniments. I’ve had as many as 4 layers going at once. I thought maybe it so…
