Microphone Choices:

THE STOMPBOX JUNGLE... Where Harmonicats and Wisemen Fear to Tread...At The Harmonica Microphone Bench

The search for the BIG sound has taken us around the world. Last time out, we investigated early portable reverb and echo devices while the HARPMOBILE was parked outside one of the world's great non-portable reverb chambers, the Taj Mahal. Nowadays, many a harp jockey knows that the source of the BIG sound can be traced back to Chicago and the harmonica's history there. Most DON'T realize that seven years before Little Walter cupped his hands around his harp and an amplified mic at Chess Studios in '52, another group of sonic wizards was industriously expanding recorded space while going for that BIG sound. Enter Bill Putnam and the Harmonicats.

Bill Putnam was very much the Leo Fender of the recording industry. He was the single most innovative and influential audio/recording engineer of his time, building studio consoles and outboard gear from scratch (Universal and Urei were his lines) when no precedent existed. In 1947, Putnam recorded Jerry Murad's legendary trio, not in Universal Studios, but in the men's restroom at the Chicago Opera House. The marble-tiled environment imparted an ethereally BIG thick reverb to their recorded rendition of "Peg 'O' My Heart," and within weeks it was a chart-topper (Side effects: Through 1947, the Musician's Union did not recognize the harmonica as a legitimate musical instrument. After "Peg" hit Number One, the union opened its arms, and membership, to the Tin-Sandwich in 1948. Ya can't argue with success...). "Peg" is considered to be the first example of reverb utilized as an "effect" rather than simply as an illusion of space. Its sonic footprint has influenced innumerable players and engineers alike, including engineer Bruce Swedien, Putnam protégée and recording legend in his own right.

FAST FORWARD to THE STOMPBOX... The harpster's search for "that BIG sound" (and anything not inherent in the sonic capabilities of the gear at hand) has relied upon Putnam-like experimentation and ingenuity in the years since, chiefly as a result of the proportionate lack of gear being designed and marketed directly for/to harp players. The STOMPBOX revolution of the '60's may not have changed the marketing focus, but it did broaden the horizon for experimentation. Early entries (The in-line distortion units by Vox, Maestro, and Jordan) were guitar-specific by design intended to modify the guitar's signal at the amp's input, producing that familiar "fuzztone" effect. Overload at low volume was now possible for instruments with magnetic pick-ups, NOT microphonic elements. For even as the early stompboxes showed the way toward the development of an endless array of individual-serving effects pedals, so did they demonstrate their weaknesses when used with microphones: Overwhelming, head-splitting, uncontrollable feedback was and is a common result of hybridizing a "fuzzbox" with a microphone.

Why? And what of the myriad of modern-age stomptoys that have come to the marketplace since? Which could be deemed user-friendly to our beloved Tin Sandwich and which should wear warning labels? It's become a STOMPBOX JUNGLE out there, and a dedicated man on a mission of sonic acquisition could go broke with the selection of miniaturized modules available...

"SOUND & WORKABILITY - AT HAND & UNDERFOOT" 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