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Author Topic: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf  (Read 19909 times)

Rick

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bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« on: February 19, 2013, 01:46:08 AM »
I bought a Harp Attack from Lone Wolf .    I also bought a wah wah pedal for my guitar.    The Harp Attack is real nice.  I wish I had it ten years ago.   The wah wah pedal is real trippy.   I play icky goos of notes that sound real cool and that I could not replicate again to save my life.   Ha ha.

Hopefully I can get it together and make a backing track from this sonic confusion.

Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2013, 09:18:58 PM »
Actually, I bought a Harp Attack and a Harp Break from Lone Wolf.   I played the Harp Break for 2 hours tonight.   Wow, it is so awesome.   My weak crystal Astatic had that Little Walter sound.   I have never been able to get that sound before with my old equipment.   I played the Harp Break directly into my mixer and into the PC.    Ha ha, I'll have a backing track soon.

Oh yes, and it has the wah wah pedal on it too.   And of course as a test I played the harmonica through the wah wah pedal.  It sounded exactly like I was cupping the harmonica.   Imagine that!   Kinda redundant, since I would rather actually cup the harmonica.   So in the recording I only play the guitar through the wah wah.

Beelzebob

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2013, 01:36:01 PM »
Hey Rick,

Which do you like better, the Attack or the Break?


Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2013, 05:45:27 PM »
I played the Break for 2 hours, and it does everything I want.    I recorded with it too, which gives me a good feel for it.

I only played the Attack for 5 minutes.   So my next session I will do with the Attack, so I can properly compare them.

But wow, was I impressed with the Break.  Easy harp tone.

Steamrollin Stan

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2013, 04:14:38 AM »
Stick up a st in G and see what we do with it.

Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2013, 04:37:42 PM »
Hi Stan,

It will be pretty rough, but it will be in E, so you'll have to dust off that A harp.

Steamrollin Stan

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2013, 01:34:23 AM »
Done and dusted, cant be any rougher than my head!! ;)

Eric Stahl

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #7 on: February 26, 2013, 09:25:00 AM »
I'm curious to hear how the Harp Break sounds.

I want to get back into recording. Have had far too much going on.

Bought a new military mic (1952 U.S. Army signal corp) and haven't even had a chance to try it yet. Plan to restore it, and put another military element into it if needed - an  excellent dynamic element that I found elsewhere.

-Eric

Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2013, 12:32:52 PM »
I connected the Harp Break to a reverb pedal, and then record right into the board.

It sounded excellent to my ears.  It's a real value!  It was fun to play too.   As I played, I heard more going on than what I hear on the recording.

It was so good, I almost can't imagine how the Harp Attack could be any better.  (The Harp Attack has a small verion of a 6v6 tube in it).

At any rate, this weekend, I should be able  tweak the recording a bit and put it up.

Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #9 on: March 02, 2013, 08:34:53 PM »
Thanks for all the kind words on "Time".   Ha ha, all your words were too kind.

But, I just wanted to comment on that Harp Break.  Even though my playing does not have the finesse that would really help you hear the qualities of the Harp Break, I think I think you can hear it.

The Harp Break is all solid state.  No tubes.    I have    played the Harp Attack a little.   It has a small tube inside it.   It is voiced the same as the Harp Break.   This is not my final opinion, but so far they sound the same to me.    Which to me means, if I was to buy one, I would get the Harp Break so you don't have to worry about the tube burning out.

But the next song will have the Harp Attack on it.

About the next song.

My new thing is that I am learning bass guitar.   I have a "Bass guitar for Dummies" book which I bought about 5 years ago.    I think I have fumbled with playing bass on enough songs that now when I read this book, the lights go on and I say "ah ha!".     Before, I just wanted some bass lines I could put into songs, but this book shows you how to make bass lines.   The rules are simple.

The cool thing I realized is that really, the bass guitar is the center of the universe, that is, the center of the band.   When the bass plays a note, the band has to play the chord compatible with that note (ignoring passing notes in this generalization).   

At any rate, I found that I noodle around on the bass.   I come up with something that contains some self contained energy and "coolness", and then I play the harp over it to see if it is a good harp bass line.    And zoweee, cool new interesting, creative stuff.   And it can be as simple or harmonically complex as I want.    For now, I will probably be somewhat  tonic and subdominant  ( I, IV) based.   Nothing is easier for the harp than that.   When you go to the IV, the harp does not even have to change if it does not want to.

So, at any rate, I'm all hepped up.

And the Lone Wolf distortion pedals have me hopped up about harmonica again too.     Damn, harmonica is like my second throat.   I really miss it when I do not play it at all.   

Ringer

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2013, 02:06:37 PM »
Just an observation on the bass. I'm playing with a group that meets on Saturdays for practice.  Once the drummer couldn't make it and the practice went fine but when the bass player was gone I was lost.  The bass is the glue that holds the group together and on mission.  At least that's my experience as limited as it has been.

Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #11 on: March 10, 2013, 05:05:08 AM »
I have been continuing to jam with the Lone Wolf Harp Attack.   It is a beautfiul piece of gear.   I think the tone is a bit fatter than the Harp Break.  Both have the same tone shaping within them, I think.

Both hit the ball out of the park.     It is an embarressment of riches to have both.   

Something that I am really loving is that I feed them into a Subdecay "String Theory" (a reverb pedal).   I listened to a lot of reverbs on YouTube.  I was looking for one for my guitar.   This one had the most character.  But it just has a mono output.   For harp I love the fatness of a stereo output, so I  then feed it into a Lexicon MPX 200 Hall reverb.   I use just a touch of the Lexicon to give me my stereo.

And wham!   What a beautiful sound!

Beelzebob

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2013, 02:10:27 PM »
Thanks for the reviews, Rick, very helpful!


Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #13 on: March 10, 2013, 03:25:38 PM »
Just to rattle on.   If I had to choose between the two I would probably get the Harp Break.   The slightly thinner tone,  ... it is like it is a little thinner at the edges sounds so much like that good JT-30 & amp break up sound.  Also it has a knob that I think is an active bass knob.  You can dial in more bass.    Or, what I love about both pedals, is that you can back off the distortion, and get a nice clean harmonica sound very easily.

What I was trying to communicate that both pedals hit the ball out of the park.

My latest "piece of a song" I am working on is another bass line that I made up that is really fun to play harmonica to.   My method is that I make up a bass line, play harmonica to it.   If it is hard to play harmonica to it (or its constraining), I throw it away and make up another bass line.  Once I have one that the harp can improvise over easily, bingo!  I use that one.    Wow, what a great way to write song snippets!    And then I add guitar.   

The snippets are much more "harmonica-centric" than my old method of writing with the guitar, then putting harp to it.    The guitar is much more modal sounding, which is a sound I love.  (Probably an accident.)   It sounds much more like the blues songs from the 1930's, where it was a man and a guitar and a microphone (and maybe a harmonica!).   

But at any rate, now I have these great harmonica pedals to play over this stuff.  Zowwie.

Sorry about burbling on about all this stuff.     But I'm having so much fun...   And my wife just looks at me funny when I try to burble about this stuff in her direction.  :-)   

Okay, okay, I've had more coffee.  And I'm playing the guitar part on a Stratocaster -like guitar I built (from parts on ebay).   The unique thing about it is that it is a stereo guitar.   The three treble strings go to one tone chain drenched in reverb, while the 3 bass strings go to another, direct to the mixer in this case, dry, no reverb at all, and I can pan the strings left and right.    Stere eri erio!

Rick

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Re: bought a Harp Attack from Lonewolf
« Reply #14 on: April 13, 2013, 07:32:05 PM »
Well, responsibilities from work and from home have crushed me from both side, so I never finished the second demo song.

Poor review!

But I'll finish my review anyway.

The Harp Attack and Harp Break are voiced the same.  The tube in the Harp Attack does thicken the tone some.   But I don't think the tone needs to be thickened.   The general voicing was already perfect.

So I like the slightly thinner sound at the edge of the Harp Break.  Also, since it has no tube, there is less chance of it ever needing maintenance, so I prefer the Harp Break.

 

anything