Gear

Time to talk setup. Can't say I've got anything fancy. I've used a Sure Green Bullet microphone for years. I run it through a Fender Performer 1000 amp. If I really need to stand out from the band, I use the amp foot pedal to switch to a gain channel. Recently I added a Holmes harp commander, which I love. It gives me some control the eq and gain, and also has a handy compressor to help kill feedback. Guitar amps aren't really made for microphones, so it matches the impedance and lets me get that nice fat tone I've been seeking. In small venues I can just run through the amp, or for larger rooms, can take a feed from the amp into the PA. The Harp Commander can also go straight into the PA. Saves lugging an amp and still gives me a pretty nice sound.

There are a few things I'd like to work on. I like the fender, but a good small to medium sized tube amp would be nice. My next long overdue move will be a volume pot on the mic. I'd like to play around with other effects a little more when I get the time. I went to a workshop with Kiwi harp man Brendan Power, and he demo'd a lot of cool tricks with delays and choruses, but at the end of the day, all we really want is a killer tone.

I mainly use Lee Oskar harps, although I really like the Hohner Special 20. I switched to Lee Oskars 'cause back then they were the only ones I could get replacement reed plates for, so I've pretty much stuck with them. Occasionally I clean them in an ethanol solution - Vodka and a cotton bud is pretty good.

I used to haul everything around in a leather briefcase, harps in their plastic cases, but just bought a little box and packed it with foam for the harps. It's a cheaper solution than a purpose built harp touring box but it's not super robust. We'll see how long it lasts. I think any gig money I make this year will be going into gear.