John Popper special mic?

[Arn C.]

"John Popper{Blues Traveler} has rigged a special microphone with switches that change the audio effect of the harmonica as it is played through an amplifier. This is similar to a guitar effects pedal".

My brother plays harmonicas in a small town band in Canada and I would like to make something up similar to this mic for him.  Of course I can not find much info about this.  Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!
Arn C.

[Joe Stone]

I don't have an answer for you, but you might try this Microphone Builders group in your search:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/micbuilders/

[Arn C.]

I am sure that adjusting some of the effects we build here for the microphone  may just be the answer.  It seems that the mic either has some effects built into it or it may just have the switches on it, because it looks like a large cable assy going from the mic to wherever(probably an amp) or maybe the effects that are remotely activated by the switches on the mic. 

Wonder what effects in this forum would sound good for this,  filters, boosters, od's.........?

Arn C.

[doug deeper]

i was talking to a guy who plays harmonica a few yeard ago and he mentioned there was a boutique company that made a harmonica fuzz...basicly it killed all sustain so there was little chance of feedback.
so get to misbiasing those transistors!

[Nasse]

http://www.elektor-electronics.co.uk/magazines/2003/november/directional-microphone.55407.lynkx There was much simpler version mentioned in the article but dunno about this or that performance, just a diy mic project with electret capsules with no fx.

In the old days they used to use Green Bullets.

[The Tone God]

From what I have seen is just a regular mic, like a 57, with a bunch of switches taped to it and the cables all taped together to the audio cable. He probable has some type of switching system in his rig, even if its just modded pedal switches like Boss effects, connected to the mic buttons. It all looks very kludged together to me and not that impressive.

I use an old 520 myself and I don't know but all those buttons would get in the way for me preventing a good seal. I would have stuck with the pedal board. I would guess he has the buttons low enough that he can still cup the head of the mic.

Andrew