Harp On!
Harmonica Amplifiers

Amplifiers can serve to make your playing louder and/or to generate a certain tone.
Once you know what you want from an amp you can set about getting the appropriate setup for you.
When investigating any amplifier, it is a good idea to read musician reviews on Harmony-Central.

On this page. Amplifiers, preamps and emulators.

• Tube Amps
      Purpose Built Harp Amps
• Preamps
• Emulators
• Other ways and means
• Links to Schematics
• Contents

• Tube Amplifiers
  Before launching into the list of suggested amplifiers, it's worth sorting the myths from the facts. There's a useful article worth reading in full called Amplifier Myths, Fantasies, and Facts on RockDog.com.au
  
  • If you are after the typical overdriven "Chicago Blues" tone consider trying a Class A all tube amplifier combo or head.
  • The tried and true popular brand of choice is Fender.
    • The original 5 Watt Fender Champ was a sweet little amp for getting an overdriven tone. Unfortunately the latest models have a solid state power amp, rather the early all tube models.
    • So alternatively one of the small modern 15 Watt Fender amps: Fender Pro Junior with 10" speaker; or its bigger brother Fender Blues Junior which has a bigger 12" speaker and spring reverb, are proven harp amps for professionals. For large or loud venues you'll need sound reinforcement.
    • The original '59 Bassman is often sought after, failing that its worth checking out the '59 Bassman ReIssue, with a wopping 50 Watts through 4x 10" speakers, this can hold its own and preferred by some professionals for its big powerful sound.
    • Other Fender amp choices are: Pro Junior; '66 Princeton; Blackface Deluxe; Tweed Super; Tweed Blues Deluxe ; I loved the tone I got through my Fender Super 60, and the spring reverb is excellent.
  • Victoria has some great harmonica amps and are used by some of the top pro harp players. The Victoria 518-T is a 5 watt replica of the Fender Tweed Champ and the Victoria 45410-T 45 watt combo amp with 4x 10" cab is a recreation of the '50's narrow panel 4X10 Fender Bassman.
    
  • Carlos del Junco's postive review on Edward Amplification's " The Ed", 1x 12" 14Watt all tube combo.
  • Clark Amplification specialises in Fender Tweed replicas.
    
  • The Kalamazoo 10W tube combo is a good alternative to the Fender Champ.
    
  • I've played through a sweet little Vox AC4 which is a beautiful tube amplifier. Its also worth checking out the Vox AC15 & AC30 which are classic British tube amps. .
  • Kendrick Texas Crude Harp Amp
  • Richard Hunter uses and recommends the Crate VC508 and written recommendation for getting a Blues Harp rig for under $450 on his website. Small, portable loud 5 Watt class A amp combo with a Celestion 8" speaker, solid state drive & rectifier. For harmonica I found it was limited in tonal range. For the price I'd prefer an old Fender Champ or Kalamazoo since I found the VC508 cutting and bright, excellent for guitar, but I prefer something warm and softer. The owner's manual is available online in PDF format. Read its reviews on Harmony Central.
  • For tube amps re-tubing may help your tone, if you decide to re-tube the rectifier you will need to also re-bias your amp to avoid problems. Take great care in doing these things, a lot of lethal voltages are involved, also take care to avoid killing your amplifier!
  • For more information on tube amps & setting them up for harmonica:
    Harmonica House, Harp Amp Page with amplifier setups & tube mods
    Harp Amps the harmonica amplifier tips & DIY site.
    Blues Harp Amps, Harmonica Amplifiers
    The Fender Amp Field Guide
    
  • For harmonica, 8", 10" & 12" combo/cab speakers are good sizes for warmth. Bigger speakers tend to honk for harmonica. So a 2 to 6 speaker cab with smaller speakers would be preferable to a single or dual large speaker cab if you are wanting volume & tone.
  • Whatever the sound you are after generally all tube amplifiers do harmonica a great deal of justice, whereas solid state guitar amps rarely do except possibly acoustic playing or heavily processed harp with effects. The Harp Commander can overcome this by dialing the amp as clean as possible so its just amplifying the Harp Commander's warm tone.
  • And you may consider custom built Harmonica Amplifiers with lots of tone and head room like:
    
    • Meteor Amplifiers by Scooter. Includes plenty of control to give you a full bodied tone, with cut and definition at high volumes. Meteor Amp pictured to the right.
    • Sonny Junior harmonica amplifiers are sought after tone monsters. By changing the power amp tubes you can scale this big amp for any venue.
    • Kinder Harp King includes feedback and "MidBass cut" control. Great for very loud gigs. Also available feedback & tone outboard units for harmonica which have had good reviews.
    • Skip Simmons offers amplifier repairs and modifications for Harmonica players.
    • Buffalo Amps offer a reproduction of the classic 1950's crest (tweed) Gibson GA-20 guitar/harmonica amplifier.
    • The mid size Spirit Harp Pro got some excellent reviews with good tone and ability to deal with feedback. Similar in size and volume as the Fender Blues Jr, with several added features. This company has folded so you'll only find them second hand.
    • And the small & tastey Marble MAX amp.
  • List of Books on Tube Amps.

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• PreAmps
  
  • The Harp Commander
    
    Ron's Tweak Shop sells the Harp Commander III and Harp Commander Jr harmonica preamps.
    • In the early 2000s I bought two original Harp Commanders, which are no longer available now. They are a great portable preamp for harmonica players looking for warm distorted tube-like tone. I use it straight into my mixer, or the house PA and very happy with the result.
    • The Harp Commander can be used to mitigate feedback with your favourite tube amplifier & effects pedals, whilst giving you some extra dimension & control to your tone. It can drive an amplifier and a PA OR TWO amplifiers if you're really keen. And it can be used into your computer, stereo, PA, mixer, or even a lemon of an amp dialed flat, and get a satisfying warm tone.
    • The Harp Commander III has a lot of new useful features, which are listed in full on Ron's website.
    • The Harp Commander Jr is similar to the original with some differences: the HC Jr is bigger in a half rack enclosure; it has two battery draws for 9 volt batteries; it doesn't have compressor or phase control; but it does have a seperate level control which is extremely useful.
    • Daniel Cabana approached me with a recommendation: It would be nice to have the photo of the new Harp Commander III. It is so different with many more options than the original which isn't available anymore. It's everything a harp player wants on a crowded or loud stage (as most usual!). So I agreed to put up picture of the Harp Commander III, if he provided a review: I bought the Harp Commander after evaluating almost every solution I found on your site. I could not compare with the older Harp Commander because I never saw one. I have 5 tube amps beginning with a 5 watt Fender Champ (the new one, I know, but It does the job for 200$), an old Gibson Br-9 in top shape, an old Peavey Classic 50 watts with 4 ten inch speakers, a Hugues & Kettner 22 watts and, finally, a 50 watt Crate Vintage Club with a 15 inch speaker. On a crowded stage with high volume playing, it is impossible for a harp player to hear himself without feeback with any of these amps.
      The new Harp Commander gives me the possibility to send the signal to both a PA and a wireless in-ear monitoring system (not bought yet but coming soon) or another amp with two balanced ouputs (XLR and TRS) with a line out level pot. It looks like the phase switch has been replaced by a potentiometer for even more control. You get one XLR balanced or not input and a TRS balanced or not input, both sharing the same gain control for low level mic. There is an effect loop and an unbalanced input for high impedance mic or instrument with a gain pot. A dual battery pack with aux power and an On/Off switch.
      Like the old Harp Commander, you also get a bass, a treble and a compressor potentiometer. The construction is sturdy and top notch. Every piece is first quality. I'm impressed, what can I say more, everything works as advertised and even better than my expectations. The Harp Commander as its name implied is built with harmonica players in mind but it works for guitar (it is my first instrument), many other instruments, even voice. Dealing with Ron Holmes and his wife Linda is a very good experience. This part is unvaluable. The price for this unit is very reasonable considering the quality of the Harp Commander and the after sale service I got. Try to beat that with a big corporation.
      Best regards,
      Daniel Cabana
    • Buy Ron Holme's Harp Commander from Coast to Coast Music
      
      

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  • Mesa Boogie V-Twin
    
    • MesaBoogie offer the V-Twin 2x 12AX7 AB type tube preamp foot pedal.
    • A good tube preamp with some useful options including two channels, three gain stages and outputs for PA, cab and amplifier. As it comes with two high gain 12AX7 tubes it may be worth investigating a couple of lower gain tube swaps for just the right tone for your needs. Not quite the classic brown tone of a type A tube amp though.

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  • A Designs Studio REDDI Direct Box
    
    • A Designs Audio LLC endorser Ted Perlman stated:
      'Dave McKelvey - world famous harmonica player (just finished 3 tracks for American Idol with Desmond Child). Upon hearing the sound of his Shure Green Bullet mic plugged into the REDDI box, he uttered "that's the best sound I've ever gotten in ANY studio". He must be telling the truth - he booked me to record a bunch of spots for some TV commercials he's scoring.'
    • The REDDI is a class A tube preamp DI box originally designed for electric Bass, Guitar, Keys, etc. available at A Designs Audio LLC West Hills, California, USA. Or you can Email them.
  
  

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• Tube Amp Emulators
  
  Emulators like the Digitech RP units, J-Station, Behringer V-Amp 2 & Line 6 POD XT are an approximation of many good tube amplifiers. They are digital audio processors that emulate tube tone and response. I don't have experience with the latest models, but with the earlier POD 2.0, convincing as it was, there was something missing that you could only get with the real deal: analogue circuitry.
  In live settings it could be a lot of hassle to set it up sounding good and avoiding feedback. I understand it is 16 bit and has a 33kHz sample rate. By comparison (on paper) the latest units by Behringer and Lexicon look promising as they have a higher audio bitrate 24 bit and faster sample rate at 44.1kHz. As does the earlier J-Station which was released shortly after the first POD! Emulators are definitely an economical way to try out a lot of different tube amp setups to explore and figure out what works for you without investing much money at all since theres a lot of tonal range and features spoiling you for options. They are also very useful for jamming, home recording and studio work. There's now a wide range of amplifiers available with various tone modeling or effects units built into them. Some of these are essentially a very clean power amplifier with the tone modeling unit producing all the tone. A powerful PA with good monitors is the ideal way to use these live. Like Behringer and Line6, other companies such as Fender, Marshall, and Roland have followed suit, making amplifier hybrids from their latest tone modeling processors; tube analogue amps; and solid state amps - in varying combinations.
  
  • Line 6 were the first to bring out versatile and convincing studio tone modeling units, such as the POD. The POD 2.0 was an attractive option, offering a huge range of all-tube amplifier emulations in one package based on popular brands such as Fender, Marshall, VOX, Soldano as well as a few boutique tube amps, you'll find the Fender Champ and Bassman which are good for harmonica. The POD was impressive when it came out, but has since been upstaged by competitors, and its big brother the POD XT, which has better hardware, and a lot more features & effects.
    The POD and POD 2.0 have a lower audio bit rate and slower processors than current 24 bit tone modeling units like the Behringer V-AMP 2 and POD XT. The result is the first two POD models sound distant which can be compensated by pumping them through a powerful PA or amp, and have a harsh edge to their tone of which you can do naught.
    The POD series have mix & match amp & cab emulation combined with with useful effects including leslie rotary emulation, tremolo, chorus, flanger and compressor. With the POD & POD 2.0 you can pick one of these effects with or without delay/echo. In addition to that you can use room or spring reverb, overdrive, presence & drive-boost. The reverb & delays are reasonably good for harmonica.
    I used a POD 2.0 for well over a year. It was the best option available to me at the time and I was happy with what I got out of it. It probably saved me thousands of $$$ while I figured out what I wanted and could expect from my rig.
    Check out Mitch Weiss who uses the POD 2.0 for a number of his studio recordings.
    
  
  

  POD2 Sound Samples

  
  
  • Johnson Amplification released their first J-Station soon after Line6 released the original POD, although it has a more powerful audio processor. It offers a similar range of functions as the others with 24 amps & 18 cab emulations, along with a range of popular effects. Its MIDI programable, and has computer editing software. Also if you bought an earlier J-Station, you can download the latest firmware and get all the latest features of the latest model - currently Version 2.
    It even has digital output for quality recording. Apparently Johnson Amplification are (or were), for all intents and purposes, the development arm for the Digitech company. According to several sources on the internet they are out of production, but they still maintain the Johnson website. However DigiTech continued the technology in their now discontinued Genesis range, which incorporated GeNetX™ technology. Like DigiTech's latest GNX series. You can upgrade the software on your J-Station as well as download patches directly to your unit. You can also download the manual for free. Useful bMusic article. Some J-Station reviews rate this emulator above the others listed here.
  • Some harmonicists are happy with the Digitech RP series amp emulation & multi effects pedals.
    - Richard Hunter's RP200 review, and
    - Randy Singer's VC300 review.
    The RP100A, RP200A & RP300A price & range of effects makes them an attractive option.
    The RP200A has some very useful effects such as the expression pedal, the "Whammy" effect like the whammy bar on a guitar, and a convincing pitch shifter, as well as the use the a foot pedal to control these things as you play making for some very interesting and expressive outcomes, this works with effects such as chorus & flanger for instance. The RP300A and RPx400 have even more effects and tricks and in comparison are probably worth the extra money.
    Richard Hunter supplied sound samples of all his RP200 patches for harmonica which he uses for recordings and gigging.
    The Digitech RP range are generally thought of as sturdier and more feature rich than Zoom products with a similar price range. But the expression pedals are made of plastic and need to be treated with some care.
    
  • The Behringer V-Amp 2.0 is very similar to the POD although it is half the price. It has up to date technology with 24 bit audio processing meaning it sounds smoother, more convincing and more presence. It has a very useful stereo Aux input to plug your CD or MD player into for accompanying yourself - great for jamming through your headphones. It has a bit more user program storage than the POD 2. Its MIDI programable, and has computer editing software. The unit comes with a carry bag and foot pedal. It has a plastic case instead of the sturdy aluminium POD casing. Behringer make good quality reasonably priced audio gear.
    The Harmony Central V-Amp 2 reviews are definitely worth a look.
    Behringer now have the original V-Amp in the form of a floor unit with expression pedal called X-V-Amp. From a half hour trial at a music shop I found the X-V-Amp interface very confusing and counter intuitive. It doesn't have as many features as the latest V-Amp 2, although it does offer a lightweight plastic expression pedal. I've spoken to one X-V-Amp harp player who was less than impressed with its tonal qualities.
  • Korg's Toneworks PX4 Pandoras Box is a compact personal effects hand held unit, with a backlit LCD display with several dials.
    It has 14 different amplifier emulations, 11 cabs and 127 guitar effects to play around with (up to 7 simulataneously). Interestingly some reviewers who own other emulators rate the Korg's emulation quality above others.
    It includes built in rhythm & bass patterns to play along with. Can be used with headphones or speakers for practise and can be used live through PA or amp, although the interface doesn't lend itself to many changes onstage and its relatively fragile. Takes a CD or MD player input so you can play along to any album, it can also adjust the pitch to any key for you to play along with. Includes a phrase trainer where you can record up to ~30 seconds off an album then loop it, with slow down & retune feature. A good way to explore different tones before going out and buying the real deal as well as an ongoing practise companion.
    Read the PX-4 reviews
    Compare the PX-3 reviews
    
    
    

    Korg PX4 Sound Samples
    Thank you to D. Williams For the sound samples.

    
    
  • Tips For Emulation Units
    Things I've found useful with harmonica & emulators
    
    • If the emulator has different volume ranges for each of the amplifiers, organise them either into sets of channels/banks or nearby patches, so models of similar volume levels are side by side, then you can switch between Banks (or up and down patches) during a set without compromising volume or tone. Between sets you could then select the next channel you want (or into a different range of patches) and then readjust the output volume to suit the volume of those amps.
      So it would be better to put BassMan and Fender Deluxe on one channel, and the Fender Champ and Vox AC15 on another channel. Switching between banks during a set and restricting switching between channels & readjusting output volume between sets.
    • I have found for overall better tone, avoiding signal hiss & feedback: Keep the master volume of the unit no more than 1/2 or so. Let the Amp/PA/Stereo do the work of getting the volume up and out there.
      Generally aim to keep the treble, mid & presence levels of amplifier setups low, bass can be set to taste, but it does get quite woofy if the bass is set too much higher than the other levels at high volume. The EQ of whatever the unit is plugged into can also be tweaked from flat to mitigate feedback.
    • Hot microphones will tend to cause signal clipping, so its preferable to have some volume control of your input signal, either have your mic fitted with a volume control, or by putting your microphone through a preamp before the POD's input. Set the volume around 3/4 or so.
    • For slap back, turn effects to echo, set the echo timing to fast, if you click your tongue you will hear the slap back, if you draw a long soft note it isn't noticable, but it adds body to the tone. Alternatively a tiny amount of reverb is a tasty way of adding some body.
    • Just in real life, some amps sound better with some mics than others so experiment a lot at home.

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• Other Ways & Means
  
  • You can usually get a great clean warm sound cupping a decent microphone plugged straight into the PA/mixer system. If you're using an unbalanced hot mic like the JT30, or Green Bullet, or 545SD wired hot, and wanting more than 20' of lead, then its advisable to use it through a DI box like the Behringer Ultra-DI DI100, DSP110 Shark or Ultra-G GI100 DI, and have a balanced XLR chord running from the DI box to the PA/mixer. Compared to how a singer's mic is setup, you'll need to bring the gain down and reduce the treble a bit.
  • Norton Buffalo uses an XLR vocal mic into his Boss AD5 which is an acoustic instrument preamp and effects box that plugs straight into a PA or mixer. It includes Chorus and Reverb effects with a wide range of controls, antifeedback controls, EQ, and tonal effects. A versatile unit if you want a full clean warm tone with control at your finger tips. Norton has his mounted on a microphone stand onstage so he can adjust his sound throughout the set.
  • Danelectro's HoneyTone Mini Amp having a a jFET OpAmp has nice warm tone, and is amazingly loud for its size and mere 1 Watt. Great for practice, busking, or jamming as its very small and portable. I've found mine so useful I bought a second one. I've written up a review and instructions on modifications you can make to it to make it stronger and even more versatile.
  • Smokey Amp is a very small and minimalist mini amp, with no controls, and only an input, a speaker and a speaker output which can be used to drive regular speaker cabs.
  • Danelectro also offer the eStudio a little practise amp with headphones included for about the same price as the HoneyTone, but includes echo and distortion effects too.
  • The Legendary Pignose is another popular inexpensive small amp for harmonica players. However its bigger and heavier than miniamps like the Honeytone and Smokey Amp.
  • Roland MicroCube Combo is a portable amplifier with built in tube amp emulation and effects. A lot of features for a very reasonable price, and positive reviews. Indeed Roland offer a wide variety of Tube Emulation Guitar amplifiers.
  • PyP-Bomb portable battery powered amp looks promising.
  • Z. Vex Nano Head is a tiny 1/2 watt class A tube amp that you plug straight into an 8 Ohm or 16 Ohm speaker cabinet. Voiced to deliver classic rock tone you can get clean quiet .1 watt tones to loud heavy distorted .5 watt overdrive.
• Links to Schematics of tube amplifiers and effects.
• To teach yourself audio electronics learn from Fun with Tubes and Fun with Transistors.
• For components and parts for amplifiers and effects use Banzai!.

Harp On! Amplified Harmonica main page.

• Microphones Bullets, elements & vocal mics.
• Amplifiers Tube/valve amplifiers, preamps and emulators.
  • Tube Amps
        Purpose Built Harp Amps
  • Preamps
  • Emulators
  • Other ways and means
• Effects pedals and units.
• Amplified Tone Avoiding feedback & getting good tone.
• What G plays through

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