The Fender Mustang II v.2 has arrived–first impressions
I took delivery today on the used Fender Mustang II v.2 amp I bought online from Guitar Center. I paid a total of $146 for this amp shipped; could have saved another $26 by picking it up at the nearest Guitar Center, 45 minutes away,…
Get Ready for the Huntersounds Fender Mustang Patch Set
Inspired by David Barrett’s review of the Fender Mustang I modeling amp, I downloaded Fender’s FUSE software for the Mustang v.2 amps today. Very impressive. Unlike Digitech’s Xedit, you can run FUSE without a device connected for purposes of editing and saving patches, and I…
Prices for used (and some new) Digitech RPs are still dropping
I visited eBay and guitarcenter.com today to take a look at the prices for used Digitech RPs. The only harp-friendly RPs still in production include the RP500, 1000, and 360/360XP. But plenty of used RP150/155/250/255/350/355s are out there in good-to-great condition, sounding every bit as…
Digitech’s iStomp does a lot of cool stuff for short money (UPDATED)
For the last year or so, I’ve been using an effects pedal from Digitech, the iStomp, in front of my Digitech RP500 running my patch set. I just added another iStomp to my rig, and I reckon it’s time to talk about it.
“Blue Future” is delayed, but don’t be blue
As regular visitors to this site know, I’ve been planning to follow up my record “The Lucky One” with a new set of songs called “Blue Future.” The recording sessions were scheduled for October, but I had some family medical issues on the very weekend…
My Three Big Contributions
I’ve been playing harmonica since 1967, recording for myself and other artists since 1970, and helping other harmonica players make better music since 1980. In the last fifty-plus years I’ve made 3 major contributions to the art of the harmonica: 1) I wrote Jazz Harp,…
Brendan Power Harmonicas Lucky 13 is a Great Blues Harp UPDATED
Brendan Power is a virtuoso harmonica player and a tireless innovator in building new tools for harmonica players, including new instruments and add-ons that increase the usefulness of traditional harmonicas. One of his latest innovations is the Lucky 13, a harmonica that adds a full…
How I recorded “Put The Lever Down” (2017 version)
Where “Put the Lever Down” came from I wrote the lick and harmony on which “Put the Lever Down” is based while I was hanging out in my car at one of my daughter’s skating meets around 1981, playing with a Dorian Minor tuned diatonic…
How I recorded the big harmonicas that light up “Make the Noiseâ€
Sometimes it takes years to write a song. I wrote the first draft of some of the lyrics to “Make the Noise,†the leadoff song on my record “The Lucky One,†15 or so years ago for a piece called “In the Time of Your…
How I Recorded the Effected Chromatic Harps for My Instrumental Love Song “Deeper”
I released my first recorded version of “Deeper” in 2002-3, when I had just started a series of monthly releases of free original pieces for harmonica. The recording of this song that I made for my record “The Lucky One” represents the first time that…
