Amplified Harmonica Playing

with the

Astatic JT30 Microphone


This information was originally found at my first JT30 Page. I have modified it and checked it for broken links to keep it's utility.
Microphone Volume Control Mods - Rod Piazza Hot Rod mic Tips on Controlling Feedback
Jam Session Rules The Amp Collection
Microphone Identification Pages Using a harp with a bullet mic - The Grip
Tone - What it is and how to get it. Harp Key Chart
Harmonica Jokes Fender Amp Dating
Collecting Mics and Amps Good places to find amps and mics and good reasons to collect them. What to look for. The Astatic StoryAn early history of the development of the Astatic Microphone.

Microphone Links

Astatic Microphones - CTI Audio's Astatic page - Check it out!
Shure Microphones - Shure Brothers Home Page - Shure makes the "Other" harp mic.
Tom's Mics - Where to purchase vintage microphones. Lots of info.
Vintage Broadcast Microphone Links
Jim Webb Microphone Collection
L. Ron Hubbard Collection
Stan and Bob's Microphone Collections
Tom Meers - GARMCO Radio Market
Dangerous Pages (Ira Kemp Microphone Collection)

You can order JT30 microphones and crystal replacements directly from CTI Audio, Inc. They can be reached at (800) 762-9266.


Links to Tube Amplifier related sources

Vacuum Tube Resources - Tube Amp starting point
Guitar Effects Page - Lots of info on guitar effects and Amp schematics.
AMPAGE - A whole online BBS of Amp info.


Harmonica resources

Kevin's Harps - My main source for Harmonicas, Mics, Tapes, Lessons, Toys and Info. NOTICE - NEW URL
Hohner (USA) homepage - The Mother Lode - They market the Blues Blaster flavor of JT30
Joe's Virtual Music Shop Guitar and Harp stuff
Harmonica World - Very good international site for harmonica players.
Huang Harmonicas - More Harmonicas
Martin Guitars - Distributers for Lee Oskar. Also the best name in accoustic guitars.


Blues resources

King Biscuit Time - Well crafted, wonderfully informative Blues page.


Friends

Scott Dirks Interesting Blues and Harp page. Scott Dirks is a good harp player and a Little Walter historian. I know of him from his efforts to mark Little Walter's Grave. He was kind enough to make some very good comments about the content on these pages.
Jake's Page Jake's a good Harp player and a good friend.
"B.B. Bean's WWW Home Page" - Have Horn Will Travel
"Brian Reeves" - Under construction, but interesting links.


Here is a little something to drool over.

These two pics are from a vendors table at a recent guitar show. It took two shots to get all of the mics! You can see old Astatics, Shures, Turners and dozens of other vintage mics. You can see the prices taped to a few of them.

I had the negatives transferred to Photo CD and then used Paint Shop to convert to JPG. I used various tools to paint the background blue. The original image was 2.2 meg. I got it down to about 60k each with 10 percent JPG Lossy compression. If you download these there is enough detail that you can zoom in to about 4-1 and get good results.

Left side of the table Right side of the table

 

Buy the Book!

I cleaned up my tab for Sonny Boy's Help Me and made it into a short book. There's a Kindle version for 99 cents, and if you buy the paperback you get the Kindle free.

Playing "Help-Me" In the Style of Sonny Boy Williamson II: A step by step, note for note analysis of some of Sonny Boy's Signature Riffs