So, I'm in the beginning of cutting together a demo, and I've got everything else I need, but the one thing that I'm missing is a good harmonica microphone. Do you think a Shure SM58 would work, or should I look into a specialized mic? If I am going to use the SM58, do you have any suggestions for what to do to get a better sound? I've been playing around with it through a low-wattage bass amp that I have and it's not doing a whole hell of a lot(don't know if it's the mic, the cable, or the amp).

I was just looking up making an old phone into a mic(so that i have a mic to use for distorted vocals) and it turns out alot of folks use these for harmonica mics. As easy to make as you can imagine if you can solder a wire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_09K8pcwNLY&NR=1

You need a bullet mic for Harmonica.

With shure 520, you have a dirty sound, but if you uses the shure with a guitar tube amp. better. And maybe you have the posibility to find one Astatic 335, on e-bay, really cheap. with this shit you can make a really dirty harp trash sound.

 

 

Well, the harmonica was coming through, just wasn't working when I ran it through an effect pedal with a second cable running from the pedal to the amp. We'll see how it works now though, I've got a vintage harmonica mic and now I just need an XLR to 1/4 converter to actually connect it(it'll be a little while, I just lost my job) to the amp.

Im using a shure 58 to record harmonica and everything else, and the harmonica came out fine, although my music isnt very heavy on harmonica at all. If it was Id think the money was better spent in the amp than the mic, but whenever ive seen harmonica players who just play that, they tend to have a fancy retro mic of some kind. As for me I just make sure the recording level is good(around -3)and it comes out fine for a folky sound. If you want that gritty distorted sound like old blues you probably want a small tube amp to run it through ideally. Something should be coming out of your bass amp though, try it with a different instrument and cable to check it.