A frequent question from novice harp players is: what should I buy for my first amped setup? Some of the people reading this are going to buy an amp for themselves or someone else for Christmas, or buy one after Christmas with their Christmas money. So here are a few things to keep in mind when you head to the store. (NOTE: this advice is aimed mainly at harmonica players, but the basic concepts apply to just about anything you play through an amp, e.g. guitars, keyboards, and so on.)
Connecting the RP to other gear, like your amp and your mic, is really pretty simple. You don’t need a preamp between the mic and the RP; the RP is a preamp. You don’t need a direct box between your RP and the amp or mixer you connect it to, unless the cable run is more than 50 feet (20 meters), in which case you’d need a direct box whether an RP was involved or not.
This patch combines a Stack Amp Model setup — a useful “hard” amp model for harmonica on the Digitech RP200 (my favorite), RP100, and RP300 — with a deep pitch-bending “whammy” effect that’s under foot-pedal control. It’s great for long, timed bends that seem to go up and up forever, works very well for harmony lines. (It gives a very special sound to harmony lines that involve bends.)