What to Know Before Miking a Harmonica for a Live Show

The harmonica is one of those instruments that can instantly get a room to pay attention, but you'll only want that attention if you've miked a harmonica correctly. Otherwise, you're going to get a ton of feedback, an awful tone, or just quiet volume.

So, how do you mic a harmonica for a live show? There are a few different ways that depend on how the harmonica is being played and the materials that you have available. Here are a few tips for miking a harmonica in a few different environments.

Overdrive or no overdrive? If you're new to the harmonica, there are two main ways to play it: blues style (or cross-harp) or country style. If you're playing cross harp, you'll often want a good amount of overdrive or distortion to give the harmonica more of a wicked saxophone sound. This is why great harmonica players like Little Walter had such a raw, distinctive tone; they had amps that were overdriven significantly to create those tones.

I'm not hear to give you a lesson on harmonica sounds (although I do have a few articles on the subject), but your miking strategy will vary greatly depending on how you're playing your harp. If you're playing country style, you can usually just stick a vocal mic up to the harmonica. If you're overdriving the harmonica or playing it through an amp, you'll need a special harmonica microphone designed for the purpose.

Microphone choice. Harmonica microphones give a very distinctive sound; you'll have a lot of mids and not a lot of the low and high frequencies that harmonicas, well, don't make. Something like a Shure Green Bullet is an excellent choice for a microphone, and if you're interested, I've got an article here on the best microphones for live harmonica.

The advantage of a solid harmonica microphone is that you won't deal with feedback as often, which can be a huge problem for harmonica players. You can also turn the harmonica up and make it louder than you would otherwise, which is another problem for some musicians.

If you don't have a harmonica microphone and you're overdriving your harmonica or holding it in your hand, try to choose a microphone that's good for withstanding some abuse and something that isn't too feedback-prone by nature. A condenser microphone would probably be a horrible choice. A Shure SM57 would be closer to the mark. Remember to avoid pointing your microphone towards the speakers or the amp that sound is coming out of.

Amps and PAs. If you're not getting enough volume out of your live harmonica, you can either upgrade your equipment (the guitar amp and the mics that you're using) or you can mic the amp and send it through your PA. Of course, this complicates things, because you're adding mics and the possibility of feedback. If you do decide to mic a harmonica amp, use a small mic like an SM57 for the job and try to do most of the amplification through one system or the other.

Do you have any other tips for miking a harmonica live? Post in the comments section below.