Wenn man wüßte welcher National Amp das war, wäre man schlauer.
Nach kurzem Googeln fand ich den folgenden interessanten Artikel:
https://alt.music.harmonica.narkive.com ... alter-tone
Und der bestätigte mir, was ich anderswo schon las:
Ebenso wie Jimi Hendrix, scheinen die wirklich guten Leute
aus jedem Equipment was rausholen zu können und zeigen uns mit unserer
HW-Korinthenkackerei, was wirklich wichtig ist. Nämlich spielen zu können.
Aber lest selbst:
[........]
David H. wrote: Little Walter supposedly used a Masco amp that the
Sonny Jr. is based on. He also apparently used a Danelectro Commando
that Gary (Sonny JR's manufacturer) has offering for sale. He also
reportedly used: a tweed Bassman, a Premier amp, a National amp, and
probably lots of others. They all are most likely good amps.
"Supposedly" is the key word here. I've talked to literally dozens of
people who saw Little Walter play, played with him, recorded with him,
and were around him, and not a single person has EVER been able to say
for sure *exactly* what amp he used at any time in his career.
People have given descriptions - "it was an amp with a lot of speakers
in it" or "it had separate speakers that came away from the amp" - but
most of the amps he's supposed to have used are just the amps that
people have been able to find that most closely fit the descriptions
they've heard.
No one I've ever spoken to about it - and I've talked to a LOT of people
about this over the last 20 years or so - seems to know any real details
like which amp was used on which recording session, etc.
The best info I've ever got in all of my searching is this: A harp
player in Atlanta who says that when he was 16, he saw Little Walter
play at a big theater, has said that Little Walter was using a Premier
amp on stage.
Little Walter's former guitarist Dave Myers says he thought LW was using
a "Macon" PA system to play through. And Louis Myers, Dave's brother who
also played with LW in the '50s, said LW played through an
"International" amp that had two separate speaker cabinets with several
small speakers in each cabinet.
The "Macon" PA system Dave spoke of was probably a Masco, and the
"International" amp MAY have been a National, but I've gone through
Stacks of old National catalogs from the '50s and '60s and never found a
National amp that matches this description. The assumption that LW used
a Danelectro Commando is based only on the fact that it is a guitar amp
that closely matches the description Louis gave.
BTW, I think it's interesting to note that although the Tweed Bassman
seems to the amp of choice for harp players today who are going for the
"Little Walter sound", I've never come across any evidence or even a
suggestion that he ever used one.
It's also wroth pointing out that there wasn't really a specific Little
Walter sound - if you listen to his recordings in chronological order,
you discover that the amplified sound changed with almost every session
he did. Sometimes it was really harsh and distorted like on "Rocker",
other times it was relatively clean. It sounds to my ear like he may
have had a different amp with him each time he went into the studio, so
to try and pin his 'sound' on any one amp is futile.
What I do know is that he went through a LOT of different amps. He
apparently didn't take very good care of his equipment, blew out a lot
of amps, and would replace them with something new whenever he had a
problem that couldn't be easily fixed. Jimmy Lee Robinson, who played
with him for 4 years in the '50s, said that LW would play through
literally anything that was available, and didn't seem to have a
preference or a favorite amp.
In fact, he said that when he played gigs around town, he never even
brought an amp with him - he would just play and sing through the PA.
(Remember that most inexpensive PA systems at that time would have been
good harp rigs - an Astatic mic and a low powered tube amp with a couple
of extension speakers were fairly standard.) And on sessions he would
sometimes use whatever amp was at the studio. So basically, whatever
WORKED and was loud enough was good enough for him.
Scott
P.S. I played a gig through a borrowed Sonny Jr. last night, and I have
to say it's one of the best sounding, most player sensitive harp amps
I've ever come across. Definitely the best new amp available for harp by
a long shot.
[......]
Podunk Phill 14 years ago
Permalink Little Walter's Effects
Mainly echo and/or reverb. The recordings Little Walter made as a leader are
somewhat more heavily effects-laden than his work accompanying Muddy Waters
and others, but there is echo/reverb present to some degree on almost every
session after 1951. At the earliest sessions, this would have necessarily
originated from the studio - there were no outboard units or amps with
built-in reverb yet available.
A lot of research has been conducted (by Scott Dirks and others) into Chess
Records' early recording techniques, and as a result we now have a clearer
picture of how these recordings were produced, In response to a recent
request for info, Scott filled me in with the following details:
"Contrary to popular belief, most of the classic Chess blues sides weren't
recorded at Chess Studios, which didn't come into being until around 1955.
Universal Studios was the premiere recording studio in Chicago for years,
and to his credit, Leonard Chess used Universal exclusively until his own
studio was up and running.
"Universal owner/chief engineer Bill Putnam built his own tape delay machine
using a reel-to-reel....(and they basically) used three different methods to
get delay and/or reverb: (1) An empty tiled room with a speaker at one end
and a mic at the other (the classic 'echo chamber,*) (2) a massive plate
reverb unit, and (3) the slave reel-to-reel that was used solely for tape
delay."
At least one harmonica book has stated that Little Walter used an Echoplex,
an outboard unit made up of an endless tape-loop cartridge. That book goes
so far as to say that the Echoplex can be clearly heard on "Juke," "Mean Old
World," "Sad Hours," etc. Problem with that analysis is that the Echoplex
wasn't yet invented or available (nor were it's predecessors the EccoFonic
or EchoSonic) in 1952 when those songs were recorded. The effect we're
hearing on them is no doubt the aforementioned reel-to-reel device built by
Putnam.
Nevertheless, the Echoplex is a handy unit for today's harp player. If
you're in the market for one, keep in mind there are two versions: the
earlier tube variety and the later solid-state model. Some folks claim
there's little difference; to my ears, though, the more fragile tube model
is richer sounding. The "echo" aspect may not be that much different, but
when used with a high-gain instrument (like harp through a mic,) the tube
unit breaks up into a warmer distortion. Unfortunately in today's market,
the vintage tube model commands more than twice the price of the solid-state
version.
###################################################################
This is an excerpt from a
book by Tom Ball called Sourcebook of Little
Walter/Big Walter Licks for Blues Harmonica
###################################################################
https://www.google.com/search?client=sa ... 8&oe=UTF-8
Gruß
drstrange