Madcat's Equipment
Harmonicas
During the last 48 years I've used a lot of different makes and models of harmonicas... I'm currently using a full set of the MADCAT model Hering Harmonicas, and a Hering STAN HARPER 56 model chromatic. I also carry with me a few Hering 1923 Vintage Harps and a few of Joe Filisko's customized harps, which use either Hohner or Huang reed plates
Click here to visit the official Hering Harmonica site.
Amplification
Currently I'm using 3 different rigs when I go to play a gig:My electric rig when I drive to the gig:
- I use a Shaker / Madcat harmonica microphone.
- The microphone is plugged into a Samson Airlines, AG1 wireless transmitter and AP1 receiver.
- The output of the wireless receiver is plugged into a Peavey Transformer 112 guitar amp. The Transformer is a user-friendly modeling amp with loads of built-in effects.
When I fly to an "electric gig" these days I take with me a Shaker / Madcat harmonica microphone, a Samson Airlines AG1 wireless transmitter, a Samson Airlines AP1 receiver, a Boss Blues Driver pedal and a Boss DD-6 Digital Delay pedal. I plug these into whatever big, clean guitar amp I can borrow, something 50 to 100 watts. I dial in the amp's cleanest setting, and then control my tone from the drive, tone and gain controls on the Blues Driver pedal. I usually have to cut the middle and treble on the guitar amp a little bit, and sometimes boost the bass. Recently in Japan and in Brazil I was playing thru Marshall Valve-State (solid state) amps. I know it's not "politically correct" to play a harp thru a solid state amp these days, but do it I anyway, and it sounds great...
No rig at allA lot of my gigs these days are with Chris Brubeck's Triple Play, or Madcat & Kane, and for these gigs I usually don't bring any microphone or amp at all... I play thru whatever vocal mike they have, quite often a Shure SM-58.
I change my equipment from time to time, but for now I'm happy with these three setups.