I am forever in search of good tone as a musician. When my tone is just right, it feels like I can grab the notes in my hand and shape them as though they were clay. It’s a beautiful thing.
I get so picky about tone that I use different power tubes in my usual gigging amp — a 5E3 Fender Deluxe clone — depending on the room. Tonight, I used some warmer, softer tubes (Coke bottle Marconis, for those of you who care), and they performed admirably. I’m playing outdoors at a big party Saturday, and if I don’t bring along a Fender Bassman I often use in large spaces, I’ll put some tighter, punchier GE power tubes in the 5E3 and haul it along.
I play Hohner Special 20 harmonicas for their tone. I’ve fiddled with other harps over the years but, for one reason or another, I always return to the Special 20s. They have a combination of warmth, drive, durability and ease of play that I just haven’t experienced elsewhere.
Lots of musicians are obsessed by tone. This often triggers what we call GAS — Gear Acquisition Syndrome — and it is an expensive proposition. But like many other musicians, I have found that the more I play, the more I can control my tone and the less I need to rely on my gear to make me sound good.
I had a gig Monday night where I was very, very happy with my tone. You never know when you walk into a room if that’s going to happen — particularly if your gear starts to get a little persnickety, which tube amps will do from time to time — and it’s always pleasing when it works out. But the search for good tone never ends.
Randy, I’ve been meaning to ask–what do you think of John Popper as a harmonica player? He strikes me as being very good, but, since I know next to nothing about this, I didn’t know if he might be considered the Yngvie Malmsteen of harp amongst the cognescenti…
Ha! Actually, I think of him more as the Jimi Hendrix of harp. In addition to all that speed, he has excellent tone — and he makes that speed work in really interesting and musical ways. And, like Hendrix, his bar-band imitators are as annoying as hell and I wish they would just go away. The goal should be to take an influence’s work and make it into something of your own, like Hendrix did with Buddy Guy and SRV did with Hendrix; if you don’t do that, and instead just cop the notes and riffs, you sound like the wanker you are.
I like listening to a bit of Popper and have lifted a few licks but I don’t want to play like him; it doesn’t work for the kind of music I do. My biggest influence is the West Coast guys who came to prominence in the blues revivals of the ’80s and ’90s…guys like William Clarke, Rod Piazza, Rick Estrin and (especially) James Harman. Among the old blues guys I especially like James Cotton and Sonnyboy Williamson II. I’ve ripped off those two guys left and right, but I like to think I play my own thing.
Hmmm…about what I would’ve guessed; I brought up Malmsteen because, and I’m paraphrasing (very loosely) Chuck Klosterman, “he could play a million notes inside a breath but it didn’t amount to anything”. Didn’t think that that was the case with Popper, but, as I said, I know next to nothing about the harp.