You have to know first that Paco (from Spain), still is a Harmony fan, but now he chose to collect only European made archtops...
Here we go! I've recorded them, but I couldn't resist connecting my Digi 001 to my computer. I spent about an hour collecting stuff, (mics, cables, stands...)
The clips were recorded through the Gemini I amp with the same settings I used in videos (see below). A bit too loud for home playing. I used an Stedman N90 microphone placed at 1" on axis. Maybe not the best detailed and pristine sounding mike. It hasn't a hot output, but it has a big diaphragm, an alnico magnet and sounds warm, sweet and musical. I like it. The signal was routed directly into a Digi 001 mic preamp, not specially good, but nothing else available at this moment. These clips are raw and untreated in any way (no Eq, no Fx, No compression or anything). And once again crappy playing (rec button syndrome). Specially on the Klira Pinguin. It always needed a neck reset and it got worse and worse, now is almost unplayable, but a managed to get a few clean notes... only a few.
Note the evident output differences. All the PUs are placed at about the same distance from the strings. P13s are not as hot as raved over there.
The Klira is my faved guitar for this kind of rock (or whatever you want to tag this) stuff, while the Otwin is my favourite all-round archtop.
Paco
Above : Silvertone S1320 (H54) and Montgomery Wards 8884 sisters
I tried to record them with my Ampeg Gemini overdriven but this brutally overloaded the camera mic. I had to turn down the volume until the amp started to sound lifeless, but the camera mic was still a bit overloaded and sounds awful, And that's not all, the built-in limiter hardly squashed everything, you can hear it pumping and the acoustic ringing was pulled too high and too present in the mix, so plugged tonal differences and subtilities are almost gone. This camera works fine for acoustics but doesn't like amps, even set quiet.
I'll try it once more, but this time with a Peavey Classic 20. I don't like it as much as the Gemini or the Soldano Atomic, but this one can sound quieter and still have some life. Let's see what happens.
Anyway, I link the Harmony clips below just in case anyone is interested. I recorded this dialing a sound for the H54 and then simply switched guitars without changing anything else in the camera or the amp. Just plug and play. I played crap, You know, that "record button panic"...
