Harpegeddon amplifier

That's insane. Who needs a 80 watt harp amp with nine speakers?

 

Lordy - I'm from the school of "more is More", but this seems like a bit much.

 

Well sure but a singer would need an 80 watt amp if there was no PA...oh wait

Harp into mic into PA--I get that
Harp into mic into small amp for overdrive sound--I get that
Harp into 80 watts when there's a singer and a PA right there? I don't get that. Any situation that requires overdriven harp at 80 watts is a situation I don't want to be in. Dude yelling "what key?" into the mic in the middle of a song at 80 watts...


"I can't express it enough, experiencing this amp is life changing."

Umm, I can believe it. So is back surgery and so is tinitus

 

They are only 8"ers. About the same as two good 12"s. Reminds me of when we were young and, well you know. Set up in our rehearsal space, it was a large one. Bass guitar and drums, mic them up. Set of monitors and set up the PA facing in with about 800W biamped with horn loaded 18" tubs and horn loaded 12"s (2 per cab) and Electrovoice horn mid-highs. Cousin cranks up his Twin, stands in the middle of it all and hits a power chord. Then a sh t eating grin grows on his face. Never saw him so happy. It was a fun weekend.

 

Reminds me of the Gibson Maestro GA-45T amps with the 4 8" speakers. I guess you would need more speakers for more power.
Thanks John

 

9x8=72
2x12=24

Almost three times the surface area. But a lot more weight

 

Does Kim Wilson have one?

 

I know a guy who bought one of Piazza's Harp Kings years ago---he hasn't used it yet. Harp amps sound best with the power fuse removed. Ugh.

 

An 8" has about 50 sq inch, a 12" 120 sq inch. So 9 x 50 = 450, the 12's would be 240. So it should be obvious, the 8" has more surface area. But the 8" drivers do not have the excursion of a 12". So they are roughly equivalent. Say an 8" weighs 2 lbs and the 12" is 8 lbs. The 8's are a little heavier.

 

Yeah, I thought of John Kinder (Piazza's amp guy) when I saw this post. He's modded two amps for me over the years. And they sound great. I still use the smaller one sometimes. But I've also picked up a 10 watt amp Harp Train amp by Lone Wolf Blues Company since then.

 

Kind of a wall of sound approach for a harp player, no microphone required. I am impressed. Has to be the most impressive, quality, harp amp ever built.

 

Well except for the microphone you have to use to get the sound of your harp into the amp

 

Modern harp players don't care for 12" speakers. They seem to prefer 10", sometimes 15". The older Chicago players would play through just about anything, including the PA, and get their sound. No Bassman fetish there.

 

You are exactly right. I plugged the numbers into a speaker SPL calculator, and the 9x8 80W is roughly equal - within 1/2 dB - to 2x 1258 speakers... about the same as two good 12's. ;-)

 

And I was giving myself -3 dB. I am sure the 9 speakers would sound pretty cool even without pegging the amp.