What’s Going On Here?

“Anybody play blues harp?” Metlay asked. “Paul Stamler can probably do the review, but just in case he’s too busy, anybody else interested in reviewing harmonica mics?” Figuring it was pretty safe to pick up some Brownie Points without much risk of actually having to DO anything, I said, “Well, I know a blues harp guy. Could probably get him in for some testing, worse came to worst.” I left it at that. When was the last time Stamler ever passed up anything, I thought to myself. I should’ve known it was a setup. Three weeks later, I found out. UPS dropped off a box from a company called Shaker. There was a T-shirt inside, along with a video and a nice hand-scrawled letter from Shaky Joe, just like the ones I write to the finance company when I’m late. He said he sure hoped I liked the mics, and told me his wife Dawn was the brains of the outfit (she can do accounting). He, his brother Jim and his son Gus build the mics in the back of the music store. Mics? Four little plastic boxes, each with a little cloth baggy inside, each with a really weird lookin’ black plastic THING inside of it. I got on the phone to Metlay. “But you said you had a guy,” he said. “Stamler’s wayyy too busy for this. You’re really gonna like these mics. I think they are absolutely totally cool!” Uh-oh!

What’s The Problem?

Harmonicas have been around for a while. They are a funky folky instrument, retro and very acoustic in nature. They also don’t play very loud. Over the years, harmonica players in amplified blues bands have developed a technique for playing into vocal mics where they cup their hands around the mic as well as the harmonica, holding the mic right against the harmonica and playing the hell out of the thing. Lots of level, lots of distortion, lots of funk! Shaky Joe refers to something called a “Brown Sound” in his literature. You bet!

Anyway, as you can imagine, nobody volunteers his prized U47 for this treatment. Or any other studio mic he or she values highly. So, it turns out the harp players have come up with their own favorites, such as the Shure 520D, AKA “The Green Bullet.” Now, along comes Shaky Joe, building four different purpose-built harmonica mics. Talk about a niche!

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