Music Stuff - Cool Stuff

Catchin' Up Yes, I am still alive and well. I hope you and your family and friends are too.  The past year has been, well, it was.  Like many musicians most of our shows were cancelled. We were fortunate to have booked a monthly date for a summer series Burgers & Blues at Pfeiffer Winery in Oregon.  The gig was outside with a large garden and grass lawn, with tables far apart so that everyone could stay safe while enjoying a night out listening to Blues. The Pfeiffer Winery gig is one of my favorites because we get to play all Blues, with Bluesy Blues, Jump Blues, Blues-Rock and Soul Blues.  Selling out every show was awesome!  Another favorite gig was on the Front Lawn Stage outside at Mac's Restaurant and Lounge, another all Blues gig, with spacing outdoors so people could stay safe.    Most of the other venues we perform at want more Rock with some rockin' Country and some Blues-Rock tossed.  Don't get me wrong, I dig playing Rock and some ...

 Win Some, Lose Some 2020 has been a roller coaster of a year for my music projects.   First, the Eugene Saturday Market had to downsize for the season which meant no music at the Market.  As the Stage Manager (which includes booking the entertainment, running sound and the stage) there was no work to do.  The worst wasn't being laid off due to a lack of work, the worst part was losing all of the community social interaction.   Next, the cancellations started to roll in for my band's gigs, as well as gigs with the Jesse Boden Band.  Then came late spring and summer when several of the venues where I booked my band had large outdoor spaces.  The venues put up outdoor stages with tables spread out across large lawn & garden areas so people could come out and be safe with social distancing.  Rewarding Experiences So, from June through September 2020 the Jimmy Haggard Band will have played several outdoor, safe shows.  It is amazing how ...

Live Music has not Died. As you all know, it has been a rough few months for musicians in the USA, and I am sure around the world.  The COVID-19 pandemic shut down bars, clubs, concert halls, festival venues, and any place where people would gather together to enjoy love music. So far, I've lost a lot of gigs in March, April, May, June and July, and I am sure there will be more cancellations to come. Enough of my crying about it.  Live Music is making a comeback in Oregon, with very carefully crafted safety plans in place so that people can come out and be safe. Band Mates Getting Together Luckily, my band mates have been able to get together once a week for a few hours to rehearse and unwind.  It's not the same as playing music for people, but it sure beats the hell out of nothing.  We have been safe.  The place where we rehearse has enough room where we can all stay 6 feet apart Inspiration! One thing that came out of the down time was the inspi...

Next Life of my Franken Tele Hi everyone, it has been awhile since my last blog post. Well, I thought my Franken Tele was done and ready to live forever with the last set of changes.  It sounded great.  I had the frets leveled and finished, and had the intonation set.  Did I say it sounded great? But something was wrong. What the hell was wrong? It just didn't feel right when I played it.  I would pick up my favorite guitar, a Gibson CS-366 and would sound and feel great.  Yet, the Franken Tele felt a lot different.  For some reason I had an AHA moment. AHA! I realized the big difference in FEEL was the neck scales of Fender vs Gibson.  The Fender neck scale is 25.5" and Gibson neck scale is 24.75".  While 3/4 of an inch does not seem like much, it makes a major difference.  I use D'Addario XL Nickel Wound 11-49 strings because of the tone, longevity and that the wound strings are easy on the fingers.   The strings on ...

After several tries, I finally found the speaker for my Marshall DSL 15C. Speakers I tried include a Celestion G12H30 Anniversary and a Celestion Vintage 30. I also tried a Warehouse Guitar Speaker (WGS) ET65 and HM75.  None of those speakers nailed it for me. I recently bought a used WGS Reaper (the standard 30 watt version) that had about 10 hours of use.   OMG!   It is perfect! I had a tone in my head that I was looking for and the WGS Reaper turned out to be spot on. No high spike. The highs are there, but not ear piercing. No overdone mids (nice sweet mids). Bass that is there without being too much. Just the right amount of break up when driven. Very responsive to touch and attack. Very responsive to the guitar volume being turned down (less drive, without the bottom dropping out of the volume). I can hardly freaking believe it. I was able to stop using the mid-scoop and the bass boost buttons on the DSL 15C. Plus, I was able to turn t...

JJ to Tung-Sol to JJ and.... In a previous post I went on and on about switching 6V6 power tubes in my modified Marshall DSL15C little monster.  The last thought was that I liked the JJ 6V6S tubes because they sang.  However, the more I played the 6V6S tubes the more the singing started to sound too high pitched, almost glassy.  After learning a lot more about the characteristics of the Marshall DSL15C, it looks like the amp is a little on the bright side.  Since I have an old Celestion Vintage 30 which is also on the bright side, the brightness of the JJ 6V6S power tubes got to be a bit too much. On top of that, listening to the album I recorded and released earlier this year, I thought, damn, I like the tone of the guitar work on the recordings.  Guess which 6V6 power tubes were in the amp during the recording sessions?  Give up?  The power tubes were Tung-Sol 6V6GT. Recently, I was able to get individual tracks recorded at a blues festival....

Hey peeps!   It has been awhile since I last wrote.  Not that you have been waiting with bated breath for my next post, or anything like that.  Something interesting happened at the last gig with my band. We were hired to perform at a private party.  It was a surprise birthday party at a big house on a hill.  Literally. Anyway, we played the first set and took a short break.  After the first song on the second set, the host wanted to make an announcement.  That took awhile.  Then the party wanted to cut the cake for the birthday girl.  By the time they wrapped that up, it was time for the band to stop and for the DJ to kick in. So, instead of playing two full sets, we played one long set and one song in the second set.  I noticed that my band mates were standing around looking at each other with a wtf look on their faces.  I said it looks like that's a wrap (It was time anyway). After awhile, the host and several ...