harmonica players

tylerpjtx

what keys do you have? i only have a C and i dont really write much in C so i rarely use it (plus i dont have one of those holder things...what are they called?)....but anyways, id really like to start using it more in my music, but i guess i need an E and G.....are there any harmonicas that some of you just use all the time? does this mean you write all your songs in the same key? thanks

mccreadyisgod

C is a great universal key, but for guitar, I prefer E, A, D, and G (in order of preference). Really, you can do it either way... most of Bob Dylan's old stuff was written in one key to facilitate one harmonica, but people like John Popper from Blues Traveler have harmonicas in any number of keys... remember, he has that fly-fishing vest and keeps like 20 harmonicas in it? That way he can play songs in pretty much any key and have something that will work. I guess it depends on how much you like harmonica, and how complicated you want your songwriting to be.

A lot of singers tend to stay within a couple or three different keys, anyways, so you can kinda figure out what three keys you always play in, and get those three (to start, anyways).

mccreadyisgod

Just for shits and giggles, I looked up Popper's rig... I remember thinking it was complex, but holy shit. From Mix Magazine, March 2002:

Though Popper's harmonicas are probably the least-expensive instruments to start with, the setup that Popper uses to get his amazing tonal coloration is anything but. "I split John's signal to five different places," explains Mahoney. "He plays into a modified Shure SM58 microphone. The mic goes into a Behringer stereo mic preamp, just to split the signal and change the level from mic to line. John considers himself to be like a guitarist, so the Behringer lets me switch the impedance. One side from the Behringer I take a direct out into the Midas at FOH via an XLR. Then the 1Ž4-inch output of that side of the pre goes into a Mesa Boogie amp switcher. From there, I send the first input to John's main two Mesa Boogie Heartbreaker 100-watt heads, the second input to the effects pedals Heartbreaker head, and I have a third send that goes to the little amp onstage he uses for feedback effects. John can play one and flip to the other. Out of the first main head, I go slave and that drives John's offstage Leslie cabinet, which I mike with a Shure SM57. That signal is brought back into his monitors. He has a volume knob on his mic so he can turn the send to that Leslie up or down, and he controls the speed of the Leslie from the mic as well. The other side of the Behringer goes into a rack of effects that we run offstage; he controls it with MIDI pedals and that goes back into his monitors. That way, I'm not stuck with one sound. He can have whatever he wants onstage, since everything is separate. The units he uses offstage are Mesa Boogie Tri/Axis models, which are MIDI-programmable preamps. I use that to control levels of each of his effect's sounds. He uses an Alesis Quadraverb, a DigiTech IP33 harmonizer and an Eventide H3000 harmonizer. I use the pre to control the effects there. From there, I take a stereo left-right to FOH, and I send those to John's monitors."

tylerpjtx

hahah daaaaaaaaaaamn.

hey thanks a lot for the help!