Hi all. I have a question about the Lone Wolf, Dire Wolf effects pedal.
When gigging I play harp using a vintage ceramic Sonotone mic. I love the mic as it’s so easy to hold but I do get quite a high, dirty pitch through it. When I use my effects pedal though I barely notice the difference between the settings on the dial 1-4… It seems to be very subtle but I’m wondering if it’s just my ears or the actual mic stopping me from getting more out of it as tbh I can get a dirtier sound if I mess around with the gain & levels on my Orange guitar amp. Thanks in advance
Hey @HowlingCat welcome to the forum. Glad to have you here! I’ve never used that pedal or mic, so I don’t have any input for you, but I would definitely reach out the to Lone Wolf guys and ask them what they think. I LOVE my Jason Ricci signature mic, btw, also in part because it’s very easy to hold. Rock on!
I’ve never used that pedal but from my guitar playing days, i would say that there’s a lot of experimenting with settings to get the best out of a pedal and sometimes the usable range of the effect isn’t where you might have miagined it should be on the dials. I remember having some drive pedals that were nice at 2, bad by 4 and terrinble by 7 and others that were nothing til 7 or 8 then all the drive.
This is what another harmonica Youtuber named Tim Douthit recommended for players on a budget who want to start using pedals. A Behringer Vintage Delay and a Joyo American Sound. I really like the way they go together. I was seeking more of a saxophone like tone when playing amplified, kind of like Terry McMillan’s amplified tone, instead of a traditional blues tone, which is more mellow. So I chose to not go for that and instead go for something powerful and raspy.
It also helps that I also have a big and powerful lip pursed tone, which your embouchre is the biggest factor when shaping your own sound. With lip pursing, it may take a while to get a “good” tone (which “good” is a very subjective term) but it definitely pays off in the end when you go in with the mindset of “playing from the heart”. I personally find tongue blocking to be more mellow sounding and although there are a lot of techniques that are exclusive to it, I personally think that all these techniques doesn’t equal having a emotional sound. They also claim “you can play anything with it”, but I have yet to see somebody play like Terry McMillan with only tongue blocking. Trust me, I tried doing Terry’s stuff with only TB and it sounded horrible. I personally view tongue blocking as more of a tool that I can use from time to time instead of a “cure-all” for everything like a lot of purists have told me.
