Any Harmonica Players out there, I could use some advice

[teleblaster]

So I've been playing harp for about 2 months or so. I recorded a little bit on a track on my TAXI page titled 'Shade Tree Promenade'. Very basic, but seems to fit and propel the track IMO. Anyway, I'm just curious to hear what harps folks are playing, what mics they prefer and any tips or technique suggestions.

I've been playing the Lee Oskar harps and like them for real solid clear country and pop sounds. I really like his Melody Maker series for picking out the heads to pop tunes and standards. But, i really have 0 experience with harps and picked up the LO's cuz they seemed cool.

Right now I'm trying to produce a traditional blues ala Muddy Waters and picked up a Hohner 'Blues Harp' for that. Wow, I didn't realize how much difference there was in harmonicas. The Hohner is a piece of cake to blow compared to the Lee Oskar. It bends w/o hardly trying. I'm not sure if it's the blues harp for me though. It's a wooden comb and has a very earthy and soft tone. I think I'd like something a little more focused, maybe halfway between it and the LO.

[mojobone]

A lot of the Chicago guys used Marine Band and, later Golden Melody mouth organs, before Hohner started making the blues harp, but the real key to Chicago harp a la Little Walter (Da Man) is the mic and the amp. The classic setup is an Astatic crystal mic and a tweed Fender with a ten in speaker. (Champs, Princetons and Deluxe Reverbs of various vintages are okay, too, but reverb sounds messy on amplified harp)

The modern Fender Pro Junior is perfect for that old-school Mississippi saxaphone sound. (turn the amp up between half and three quarters and turn the mic volume down, adjust the amp's tone knob to taste; I like it dark and smoky) Hohner and Shure (520D Green Bullet) make modern equivalents for the old bullet microphones, but some modern players prefer a shaker mic for easier hand wah/vibrato manipulation.

Here's a whole page full of great blues harp links:
http://www.bluesharp.ca/links.html

[teleblaster]

Thanks Moj,
Some good stuff on that linke from that Gussow dude. It's amazing that the info. that we used to have to beg borrow or steel back in the day is all for free on YouTube now.

One of the challenges (one of the many actually) for me with harp is that bending is so different from guitar. On a guitar bending seems natural you push on the string to push the pitch up. On a harp bending lowers the pitch. It's also challenging to get good articulation on the notes when going from bent to not-bent notes. I love the fact that I can put a harp in my pocket and take little breaks during the day and work stuff out.

I'm gonna pickup a classic Marine Band today and see how I like that. I might try the reed tweaking that it seems most if not all the pros do to enable bending and overblowing too.