Music Stuff - Cool Stuff

I picked up a new small combo to replace my old highly modified Fender Blues Junior: a Marshall DSL15C. I have read a lot about this amp, some good, some bad.  The most consistent complaints are that the classic gain channel is too clean, followed by the ultra gain channel has too much gain. Personally, the classic gain sounds great.  i crank the drive all the way up, with the master volume around 75% up.  That delivers a rich full clean sound, but not squeaky clean.  it takes pedals great, and the ibanez ts9 and ts808 pedals boost it perfectly. Plus, it has the ultra gain channel.  While I did nothing to the classic gain channel, i did some mods to the ultra gain channel that took out the shrill edge and decreased the gain.  Ultra gain is set at 50% and the ultra master volume is at 65%. With my ultra gain mods and the channel settings, the two channels are complimentary.  And, I don't need separate eq for each channel.  sweet! With that setup, i have eight complimentary

One of my favorite amps finally died.   Around 8 years ago, I picked up a used 2001 Fender Blues Jr for $300.  I modified that little amp until it was no longer a Blues Jr, with cap and resister changes, a Mercury output transformer, converted from 9-pin to octet tube sockets so I could run 6V6 tubes instead of the little EL84 power tubes, and finally a Warehouse Guitar Speaker ET65 speaker.   The sound was somewhere between a Fender and Marshall.  That little amp crunched with the best. I loved that little amp.   But, after 15 years of wear and tear, including eight years in my hands, the poor little amp finally bit the dust .  I have a couple of other amps, but they are either too loud or too heavy to bring to jam sessions and small venues.  The Marshall DSL40C amp is amazing.  Of course, I tweaked that amp a little by clipping one capacitor on the Ultra Gain, put in JJ KT66 power tubes, changed the pre-amp tube on the Ultra Gain channel to a 12AY7 (lower gain than the standa

i think it was in 2013.  I was setting at my desk in my studios (Haggard Studios in Raleigh NC) doing some audio mixing work, when this guy walks into the studios.  Since I was not expecting anyone at that time I jumped up to see who the hell it was. The person introduced himself as a guitarist who had recently moved from Muscle Schoals Alabama to the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina, and that his name was Pete Carr. So, I showed him around the studios and we talked a little. Pete was very laid back and mellow, and i enjoyed chatting with him. After a while, we ran out of small talk and Pete said he had others things to do, so we shook hands and he left. After he left, I looked Pete up on google.  Holy freaking moly!  I had no idea who I had just met.  Pete was a lot more than a guy who had moved from Muscle Shoals to Raleigh/Durham and played guitar. Pete Carr is one of the greatest session guitarists of all time.  Pete is credited with playing guitar on some of the gre

For many years I had an old Cry Baby Wah.   It was an el-cheapo base model.  Imagine how surprised I was to open it up and find a "red fasel" inducter in the wah wah.  It was not supposed to have a red fasel, but it did.  Woohoo!   Anyway, because I love to tinker with electroincs, I modified the Cry Baby Wah Wah circuits to change the tone, added true by-pass, removed the buffer components and added an LED. The best part was the LED.  Do you know how much it SUCKS to not be able to "SEE" if your wah pedal is on?  If you don't, listen up.  It sucks a lot.  I loved that modded Cry Baby Wah Wah. Then, one day it died.  The input and output jacks in the plastic casings wore out.  Damn it.  I loved that pedal. Well, I did not feel like tinkering with the Cry Baby anymore, so I tossed its dead carcass in the trash. Meanwhile, a guitarist who played in a band I was in back in Raleigh North Carolina USA used a stock VOX  847-A and I liked the sound he got out of

So..... since selling the recording and rehearsal studio in Raleigh NC and moving to Eugene OR, I have kind of neglected this little blog.  It has been almost a year now, and I am just beginning to settle into the Eugene scene.  It always takes longer than I think it should to settle into a new city. At first I thought I would look for some musicians and put together a new, west coast line up for the Jimmy Haggard band.  But, things have not worked out that way. No worries though.  I am a member of two bands now, and I do a solo acoustic act off and on.  The two bands are:  The BlueShades - Blues Rock and Classic Rock www.theblueshades.com I am a front person, singer, guitarist and songwriter in this hot ro ckin band Outlaw 'Shine - Outlaw Country - www.facebook.com/outlawshinecountryband / I am playing guitar in a coun try band, and might do a little background singing too  Enjoy The Music! Jimmy