Do you use a bullet type mic for your harp?
What's a bullet mic? Bullet is just a shape. Traditionally harp players use these because of the ergonomic shape for "cupping" (= making an airtight seal around the mic and harp with your hands) and because all the past greats used these in the fifties because back then pretty much all mic's where bullit shaped.
I have used bullets, but nowadays I use dynamic mics because you can cup these just as easy. For me it's a matter of four factors:
- You have to be able to use it for "cupping"
- You have to be able to get the membrame into slight overload.
- It has to have a fairly hot output (to drive the input of the amp) with a wide frequency range.
- You have to be able to put it into Hi-Z mode (by itself or with a converter)
It's a bit of a taylor-made recipe for each individual: How strong is your un-amplified sound to be able to drive the membrane? How big or small are you hands for cupping that mic? Do you have a relatively clean amp or does it distort early?
I use Shure 545's because for me it fits the bill and I consider the wider frequency range a plus over the traditional (mid-focussed) cartridges you find, or are able to fit into a bullit mic shell.
But a dead-simple SM57 with an impedance-matcher, in the right hands can be a killer all-round harp-mic.
They have a fair amount of tone in them, don't they?When I've recorded harp players in the past it's always been with small combo's, Tweed champs etc. Is that what you're profiling?
Personally I don't consider the mic to be the biggest part for tone/distortion. It's in the amp. And then you can't beat a single ended 5 Watt tube-amp with an 8" speaker. Shure sells a "harp-mic" (520DX Green bullit) which puts out a distorted sound by itself so you can make a solid-state Peavey 300 watt amp sound "harp-like", but that's just about it. If you use that mic on a 5 watt tube amp it's just to much distortion to begin with and you miss out on all great sounds that amp is able to deliver.
Tweed Champs yes, but basically I have never tried a single ended 5 Watt tube amp which doesn't deliver the goods: Supro, Lectrolab, Valco, Masco, Oahu, Kalamazoo, Magnatone, Generic fifties mail-order amps with no branding, recent Epihone valve junior and VHT 6 etc etc. Saves a lot of money if you don't have to pay for the Fender-myth on E-bay.
As soon as you get out of 5/10-watt-single-ended-territory it's push-pull amps: they can also sound really great but it introduces more volume with you tone (which can be a practical issue) and they tend to be a bit more robust, round sounding compared to single ended amps. Very usefull as a base for adding effects on the Kemper. For instance: if I put the "Dirty Rotor" effect on top of a profile I prefer a bigger, cleaner sounding profile because the end result is much more pleasing: If I would use a dirty profile it would certainly have the WOW!-factor in the beginning but one minute later it's just an annoying, fatiguing sound.
Right now I am profiling: a Masco MU-5, homebrew Fender Champ 5F1 in the small amp range. In the "bigger" push-pull range it's a rebuild Gibson GA-6 with a 12" and a Voice of Music 160 (Yep!) with a 10" speaker,