Microphone Choices:

THE FUZZY BRANCH OF THE TREE...

The HARPMOBILE's parked under the STOMPBOX FAMILY TREE. I hope you're prepared to do some climbing in our ongoing search for microphonic truth. Our target? That great big primary branch with all those guitarists swinging from it: THE FUZZY BRANCH. I suggest you bring your earplugs… There's good reason why this branch of the STOMPBOX TREE attracts guitarists like a black wool suit attracts lint: Its fruit can produce sweet sustain and greater impact at lower volumes when squeezed in judicious moderation, while larger doses can produce simply absurd levels of crunch, distortion, aggression, and over-the-top POWER when coupling a guitar with just about any instrument amplifier. Understand why it could be an adolescent boy's best friend? Call them distortion pedals, overdrives, or Fuzztones (Maestro's trade name for one on the earliest commercially produced units) if you like, their business is putting a hairy edge on the signal that passed through them. BUT- One instrument's Nirvana can be another's nightmare. These creatures were bred to interact with the magnetic pick-ups found on electric guitars (and basses) without so much as a thought to the consequences faced by some poor harp jockey who unknowingly saddles-up one of these babies, connects his mic to it, twists its controls clockwise, and drives it straight into a wall.

So what's the problem when you plug-in a harpmic? Isn't the FUZZY BRANCH of the STOMPBOX FAMILY TREE just a fork off of the LINE AMP branch that we looked at favorably during our last outing? Not quite. It produces pedals that act like a pre amp with a glandular imbalance, bad attitude, or a hidden evil twin. What goes in ain't what comes out. Yes, they can boost the input signal, but their designed purpose is to electronically slice and dice that signal, mutating it with harmonic spikes that cause it to become more complex, to change and grow as if it had been fed sonic steroids. It's that electronic language thing we've talked about: Magnetic pick-ups are part of a "closed system" if you like. They generate voltages that these units are intended to deal with at common impedances the pedals designed to handle. Because pick-ups measure string movement magnetically, they're not typically concerned with the soundwaves generated at the speaker end of the food chain. All the language components translate coherently.

ENTER THE HARPMIC: The language changes in a variety of ways. In many cases a cupped HI-Z microphone (crystal elements in particular) will generate voltages far in excess of those produced by a magnetic pick-up. The distortion pedal may process the input signal in its typical fashion, but once the amplified signal leaves the system's speakers it is in turn re-sensed by the microphone (which deals specifically with airborne vibrations) and is sent back through the audio chain again and again. With every loop the signal makes, the more exaggerated and expanded the distortion-induced spikes in the signal become. Can you say "FEEDBACK"? Low marks for WORKABILITY…

"Hey Fritz! I've seen harp players blowing through distortion boxes and it worked OK." So have I. Seen it, done it, too. In the great majority of these cases, the distortion pedal is being utilized as a signal booster/pre amp with a minimum of added "fuzz" rather than as a distortion devise. Ever driven wood screws with a hammer? It's not the best tool for the job, but that works, too!

WHAT'S THAT SOUND? THE EFX BRANCH -Next time we visit… THE MICBENCH

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED (Email them to me at HARPMICMAN@earthlink.net)
Next time, on THE MIC BENCH.

For pictures and descriptions of most of the microphones listed visit http://www.harmonicamasterclass.com/vintage_collection.htm