Harmonicaster
All of the Tone. None of the Feedback!
The first practical true electric harmonica.
Proudly Made in the Motor City, USA
| “Love the sound, I think the concept is great. I do think that you’ve got the fundamentals down with this. I spent a while jamming on it today, and it’s pretty impressive. Playing this thing with a cranked volume and a metal guitar amp with some effects laid on almost felt like playing a different instrument. You just can’t get that same level of grit out of a standard harmonica mic. Much more like a driven guitar sound, but with the thickness and body of a harmonica, and all of the great natural acoustic sounds that usually get lost on other electric systems. The harmonicas function just fine, I find the swapping system to be very functional and well thought out. I like having the different controls on the device. I think the most exciting part about it for me is the fact that you can get all of these different and more aggressive sounds out of it that are ultimately more controlled than a standard harmonica. I can tell it would be a game changer with pedals that would normally feedback on a standard mic. As a guitarist with a collection of pedals, this is something that’s very interesting to me. It’s also a big stress reliever not having to worry about feedback. “ Harmonica Revolution, Jonah Fox See the full video review below. |
After more than ten years of continuous development based on feedback (no pun intended) from many of the world’s greatest harmonica players, I’m happy to announce the all-new, completely reimagined Harmonicaster electric harmonica system. A true electric instrument, with steel reeds and inductive magnetic pickups.
- It has a vibrant and exciting native tone.
- You can play as loudly as you want to play without feedback.
- It’s electronically compatible with any effects device or pedal that will work with a guitar or bass (including gain, wah, and modulation pedals that would cause feedback with a microphone), greatly expanding your tonal palette and choice of pedals.
- Change keys in seconds.
- Volume, treble, & bass controls right at your fingertips so can do swells, vibratos, and tremolos.
- Available in a rainbow of colors for visual impact onstage.
- Bothersome breath sounds are eliminated.
- You can play amplified through headphones without disturbing others.
- “Made in the Motor City, U.S.A.”*
Most importantly, you can take the harmonica to musical places where it hasn’t been before. Imagine being one of the first musicians to get to play one of Leo Fender’s electric guitars or one of Laurens Hammond’s innovative new organs. I can’t imagine what you can do with the Harmonicaster any more than Leo Fender could imagine Jimi Hendrix but I’m not imagining the fact that you have to go back to the first bluesman who cupped his harp to a cheesy PA mic and plugged in to find as groundbreaking technological development for harmonica players as the Harmonicaster represents.
Custom Lace Alumitone Pickups
Working with Lace Music Products I’ve developed a purpose-built version of their revolutionary, great sounding Alumitone pickup. At just 1/16″ thick and just 14 grams the Harmonicaster pickupt may be the thinnest and lightest electric instrument pickup ever made, thin enough to slide into our harmonicas, so you can play them just like any other harp with your favorite technique, pucker or tongue blocking, all bends and overblows included.
The two pickups (one for each reedplate) are mounted in a compact, lightweight housing that contains volume, treble, and bass controls located at your fingertips, a premium multi-contact PureTone 1/4″ output jack for connecting to an amplifier, and a switch to toggle between humbucker and single coil pickup tones.
Change Keys in Seconds
Changing keys is simple and takes just seconds. Just remove the harmonica from the housing and replace it with another. The pickups slide into the harmonica and it snaps securely into place, thanks to powerful, embedded rare earth neodymium magnets, and you’re ready to go. The basic package comes with one Harmonicaster harmonica in the key of A (standard Richter compromised tuning), but we’ll be offering additional Harmonicaster harmonicas in keys from Low F to High G. Special and custom tunings will also be available on special order. Harmonicaster harmonica coverplates and combs are color coded and labeled with key signatures so you can identify keys immediately, even on a poorly lit stage
Lightweight & Compact
The Harmonicaster is lightweight and compact. The Harmonicaster system weighs right around 200 grams with one of our Harmonicaster harmonicas. Compare that to 348 grams for a JT30 with a Marine Band and 424 grams for a Green Bullet with a Marine Band.
At just 33mm tall, the Harmonicaster is about half of the height of a bullet mic, and the housing is just a few millimeters wider than a stock harmonica, making the Harmonicaster ergonomically easy to hold. With a harmonica, the Harmonicaster system is 78mm deep, compared to a bullet mic alone at 79mm. The overall package can fit in your pocket, about the size of a Sony Walkman cassette player. Remember those?
*Made in the Motor City, U.S.A.
The Harmonicaster is proudly “Made in the Motor City”, assembled from domestic and imported components in suburban Detroit, Michigan. As mentioned, our harmonica components are made in Germany by Seydel. The pickups start out as aluminum blanks laser cut in Reno, Nevada. We form them into shape, laser cut and install the magnets at our own shop here in the Detroit area, and then send them out to Lace in southern California, for them to add their Alumitone magic. Our circuit boards are made in China by JLCPCB, one of the world’s largest PCB makers with surface mount operations done in Asia and through-hole components added here in our location in Michigan. Final assembly of the Harmonicaster is done in our shop where we 3D print and finish the other parts. Yes, the front grille is deliberately automotive in look.
Our Respected Vendors
Our harmonica specific components are custom fabricated for The Electric Harmonica Company in Klingenthal, Germany, by Seydel,the oldest harmonica company in the world (established in 1847, ten years before Matthais Hohner set up shop in Trossingen), using the same durable and great sounding stainless steel reeds as they use in their Session Steel harmonicas, highly regarded by harp players around the world, along with Seydel reedplates and combs.
Forty years ago, Don Lace Jr introduced the innovative Lace Sensor pickups, used by Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Buddy Guy, and Jeff Beck. More recently, his son Jeff Lace developed the revolutionary line of Alumitone pickups that produce outstanding tone, while being more sustainable by dramatically reducing the amount of copper used.
Available in a Rainbow of Colors for Visual Pop Onstage
The Harmonicaster control housing comes standard in black with your choice of a black, silver, or gold colored grille. Avaiable for a slight extra charge are dozens of premium colors as well as our Custom Shop Metallics. You can see the color choices here.
Competitively Priced
The Harmonicaster is a high quality, professional grade musical instrument, made with the best components we can source. It is priced competitively to what a rig with a professional quality microphone and harmonica will cost, less than the cost of some custom mics by themselves.
Price: $325 plus actual shipping costs invoiced at time of shipment.
Premium Colors: $25
Custom Shop Metallic Colors: $35Additional Harmonicaster Harmonicas (LF, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C, D, Eb, E, F, HG): $85 each.
Inquire about special tunings.