We’ve featured Boris Plotnikov on this blog several times. Why not? He’s crazy good.

Boris recently responded to a post of ours about our new rig with some comments on his own setup:
“I prefer to combine analog and digital fx’s and to mix them or choose which one I prefer to use. I use for it Boss LS-2 Line Selector which works both as splitter and mixer (parallel or serial loop). But I prefer to operate by hand. It rather complex rig which allow me great variety of tones and it fits carry on baggage which is extremely important for one band I play with.”

Boris also sent us a link to a video (this one!) where he uses these techniques. Boris explains:
“Here I use clean tone G harmonica, then organ tone (100% wet Line6) from using Low D, then Low D solo using HarpBreak, then organ Low D again, then D harp solo using HarpAttack and then HarpAttack + Boss Harmonist as octave.”

Let us note first that Boris is playing here with an acoustic guitarist/singer (Mr. Bashakov, of course), and most harp players would be perfectly content to stick with one harp tone throughout this roughly two-and-a-half minute piece–probably an acoustic harmonica sound, which is what Boris opens with. As per Boris’s comments, he changes his sound six times in the course of the piece. No room for the audience to get bored with any of those sounds. Boris uses one digital effect box (the Line6–probably an M13) and three analog devices: the Lone Wolf Harp Break and Harp Attack, and the Boss Harmonist.

It all sounds great to us. When a great player comes together with some cool electronics, it’s 21st century harmonica time. Dig. Here’s that link again: Click Here!