I’m traveling to London tonight, and tomorrow (Sunday March 15) I plan to sit in at the Sunday afternoon jam at Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. I’m taking a kit that includes 18 diatonic harmonicas–most of the standard Richter tunings in keys from low F to F, with the rest comprised of Dorian minors, Natural minors, Country, and Melody Makers. It’s what I need to play most of the pieces in my solo repertoire, and it’s a good kit for blues too. I add a C chromatic to the pile and I’m ready for a jam session.

The kit also includes a Zoom G3 running my latest patch set for that device, my refurbished Audix Fireball mic, an XLR cable with a rat-tail transformer, and a long 1/4″ cable to connect the G3 to the PA, which I know from experience at ANBTB is across the stage from where I stand when I play. The G3 runs on batteries, which is the main reason I’m taking it instead of the Digitech RP360XP–it’s a lot faster to set up when you don’t have to find a power outlet.

The last time I played at ANBTB, I had the G3 with only a draft set of patches, plus a different mic, and I couldn’t get comfortable with the gear–too much feedback, for a start. The Fireball mic is easily the most feedback-resistant mic I have ever used, so that eliminates one problem. I’ve completed the G3 patch set since then, so the patches are engineered to be louder and more feedback resistant too. I’m expecting the gear to do its job this time around, which of course makes it more enjoyable for me and everyone else in the room too.

The specific patches I intend to lean on most include the BasmTapEco (Bassman amp with tape echo) and BasmVib (Bassman amp with vibrato). The former is a nice Chicago sound that works well with and without the Tape Echo slapback, and the latter is as close as you can get to an organ sound with the G3, a nice changeup from the basic Chicago sound.

I’ll file a full report on how the gear worked on my return. In the meantime, if you’re in London on Sunday afternoon, drop by Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues.