Cupping a Bullet Mic
Following the suggestion in LOA 2 I watched the first two videos about cupping a bullet mic. Good information but I saw something and didn't get the explanation I needed. If it's elsewhere on the site just point me to it. Some background. My basic grip has the last two fingers of my left hand doing most of the holding. My left index finger is on the harp. The remaining finger is at the mic's grill, it's curve matching the curve of the two fingers on the harp but it's main focus is to provide a barrier between the harp and the mic. I think mostly I'm doing what you're doing. But what caught my attention was your mic seemed to be so low in your left hand that the harp is actually above the top of the mic. A quick review of my grip has the mic higher up in my hand so the back of the harp is more directly into the grill. Is my interpretation reasonably correct? Thanks!
Thanks David. Won't obsess as I can get a reasonable cup now but will try to get the bottom edge into the crease by tilting the mic down a bit. It looks to me as if your left hand pretty much covers up the bottom left quadrant of the grill and the right hand will likely cover up the bottom right quadrant. Want to emulate your tone as much as I can physically match up as I haven't heard better tone than yours and I'm also a fan of Greg Heumann's tone and I know he learned a lot from you.
Good morning SmokeJS. That's a great description, and that's just fine for a good sound. Each person has their way of doing things that's slightly different and doesn't really effect the sound. I personally tilt the face of the mic downward so that the bottom edge of the mic fits into the crease of my left hand (between the thumb muscle and knife-hand edge muscle). My middle finger is also behind the harmonica. Here's a picture for you: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=629868167076781&set=pb.146303078...
Don't obsess over this, you'll find a hold that works for you that sounds good and is comfortable. Let me if this helps.