Harmonica FX

[Mark Hammer]

Just returned from Summer NAMM 2018, and the only way I could gain entry for the full 3 days (the last day is essentially open-access) was as a product demonstrator for, of all things, a guy just outside of Detroit who makes an electric harmonica ( http://rokemneedlearts.com/harmonicaster/ ).  My First thought was "Yeah, fine, whatever, can I get my badge?".  But it turned out to be an interesting product.

Harmonicas normally use brass reeds, and when a player wishes to have a more intense amplified sound, they will cup a voice microphone (Shure "Green bullet" preferred) behind the harmonica.  Great, classic tone, but the problem is that unless one has a large stage and stands in just the right spot, feedback can ensue.  So Ron, the developer, found a brand of harmonicas that use steel reeds.  Being ferromagnetic, that means they can be sensed by a pickup, just like guitar strings.  He had Lace wind him some custom coils, designed a housing and mouthpiece to hold the pickup, harmonica and a pair of thumbwheel pots for volume and tone, and 3-D printed it.  Unless one stands right next to a dimed Marshall stack, loud enough to shake the reeds, NO feedback.    And after walking down Broadway on Saturday night and seeing the average stage size that a great many bands (and there were a great many bands, working simultaneously) have to work with, eliminating feedback is a godsend.

Okay, so much for the sales pitch.  What such a device implies, however, is that FX pedals for the harmonica now become a practical thing because of the opportunity to divert attention away from making sure the mic doesn't fall down or feed back, and allocate attention to symbiosis between the harmonica and any FX that might be useful/creative.  Start yer engines, folks.

BTW, Vox was giving out free harmonicas with an inside joke name: Continental.  They came in the same coral/salmon colour as the original, and I think used the same font.  Get it?  Vox Continental organ?  "Mouth organ"?  I thought it was cute, and the company reps smiled when they saw I got the joke.

[digi2t]

OK... who's gonna be first outta the blocks with a "Harmoni-fuzz"?

[vigilante397]

One of the coolest mind-blowing experiences I ever saw was at a high school talent show a while back. there was a teenage boy, maybe 15, with a harmonica. He had it up to the microphone, which had just the right amount of delay on it (pretty sure it was just from the PA mixer), and BEATBOXED THROUGH THE HARMONICA. It was so unbelievably cool I forgot to get a video

[ElectricDruid]

Harmonicas have a great tone for phasers or flangers...all those harmonics. Whooosh! Maybe not so great for fuzz - pretty fuzzy already. Still, there's always a way, right?! Death metal harmonica here we come!

What sort of control can we get on a harmonica that you don't typically get on a guitar? Besides annoying my parents with one when I was kid, I don't know much about them.

[Ben N]

OK... who's gonna be first outta the blocks with a "Harmoni-fuzz"?

Harp players have long plugged their mics into overdriven tweed-style small combo amps; I'd think any of the ROG tweed/supro sims would work great adapted to plug straight into a mixer input.

[nocentelli]

Envelope filter

[Marcos - Munky]

There's a brazilian harmonica player called Leandro Ferrari that uses guitar effects on harmonica since, well, at least 2006. We did a few short chats via internet, and I remember he had a few effects like delay, chorus and phaser on his pedalboard, along with a whammy and a zvex fuzz factory .

Here's a clip of one of his songs, you can hear some phaser and delay around 1:25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgXRdqC47_Q

And a version of the wizard with delay, whammy, and I'm pretty sure this distortion is generated by some pedal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxT6VOrYsJM

What a coincidence. I'm somehow tired of playing guitar and planning to get back to my studies on harmonica. Maybe I'll build me an harmonica pedalboard

[ElectricDruid]

Thanks for that, Marcos. Cracking stuff and I wouldn't have come across it by accident.

[PRR]

Interesting.

re: Fuzz... the harmonica's timbre changes quite radically, much like human voice, with blow strength; long strings not so much. While much timbre change is possible with pick-technique, guitarists love distortions for "natural emphasis": play louder and get a sharper timbre.

While Of Course e-harmonica users will try fuzz, it may not add as much to their tonal repertoire, and may not make the fuzz-mongers rich.

I'm wondering about EQ. The guitar was a fairly narrow-band instrument until the Fender Tonestack dipped 700Hz and brought up the low bass and high overtones, giving the Great Big Sound we now accept as electric guitar. I'd think the harmonica is even narrower band (if only because a narrower span), but we may be surprised.

Mechanical stutter may be a useful adjunct to tongue stutter.

Delay, echo, reverb work on almost anything. (Actually I know a composition that holds one note for many hours, but it was not a hit....) (Or John Cage's 4'33.)

Unless we go back to the 1930s, the number of harmonica players will never *approach* the number of guitarists. So market share will not begin to get near the number of guitar effects sold. (And if it does, you know the mega-corps who will flood the stores with $29 boxes.)

[Nasse]

Looks like usual wah effect with hands does not do with magnetic pickup naturally so because how it works. Some kind of electronics could bring it back.

[pinkjimiphoton]

i've put a couple harp players using the bullets with a volume pot on them thru fuzzfaces, they sounded great!