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See below for Nash's thoughts on MP3.com, and the re-release of 'Children' on CD
The Mandolins
In 1971 I purchased my first electric mandolin. It was a Harmony and made in Japan. It cost $120.00 CDN and looked like a small Gibson SG guitar. It's best features were a really nice neck with very good finger access to the higher frets. It also had a good response to fuzz and other guitar devices. In 1973 I found the Rolls Royce of electric mandolins - The Gibson.
It was in a pawn shop (Richmond Trading Post, Church St., Toronto.) It was $400 second-hand, which was about as much as you paid for a used Gibson Les Paul Deluxe guitar at the time.I knew it was magic the first time I held it. The neck is a bit wider and deeper than the usual mandolin, and it has a hefty feel to it.The body is connected at the 14th fret, not the usual 10th fret on an acoustic mandolin.The body was a solid slab of mahogany, and the instrument felt like a mini-Les Paul. The pick-up was a custom Gibson design similar to a humbucker but with only 4 pick-up screws. The strings went over the bridge into a tailpiece, one of the few design flaws. I chose to later correct on my custom instruments.
In 1979 I met Vladomir Bosnar, a well-respected instrument maker living in Toronto. He had worked at Gibson Guitars and was involved in the development of such classics as the Thunderbird and the Flying V.In his spare time he had created some fine acoustic violins and cellos as well. He was a well-rounded luthier. I took my Gibson mandolin to him and he carefully noted all the measurements, in particular neck dimensions and body weight. Vlado was familiar with the instrument and I wanted him to make me an exact replica except that I would provide a body design. Being a guitar world, I wanted the mandolin to respond well to guitar effects. Another observation was that a mandolin doesn't need multiple pickups or extreme tone controls because it doesn't have the sonic range of a guitar.Gibson is the template for my instruments but the final evolution is unique. The mechanics such as bridge, tailpiece, pickups and strings have all been developed through trial and error.Then the development stops. There is a finality to practicality. I was a big fan of Be-Bop Deluxe, and their first album cover featured a painting of a Skull Guitar, only a front-on look. I wanted a profile skull with a kind of Alien look. The design was created and painted by my lighting designer at the time, Stephen Pollard. The details of the skull are painted on with small dots from a very fine indellible pen. The technique is called pointilism.The paintjob was then lacquered. The white paint has since yellowed but now it looks even more like an oldskull. While Vlado was making my first instrument,I did a tour of the Eastern USA including New York City.Wouldn't you know it, while in NYC the van was broken into and the Gibson mandolin was stolen, along with a keyboard and some lights. I made a perfunctory report to the police.Back in Canada, my insurance company paid up immediately upon seeing the New York Police report. Things don't get recovered in New York' cause no one's looking for it!. By contrast, in 1980, my Skull Mandolin along with my Mandoblaster were stolen off the stage at Hammersmith Odeon in London England. See the detailed Bio on the website for further info. Suffice to say that Scotland Yard was on the case and the mandolins were recovered 4 months later.But I digress. I never bought another Gibson because I now had my own custom instrument plus Gibson stopped making the electric mandolin.I haven't checked their website recently for any new updates on his beautiful instrument but the older instruments sell for up to $3,000US!. I have 4 custom-made mandolins from Vlado and as far as I know, he has never made any others. All four have names. The Skull..... On the cover of American Bandages. After slight modifications in electronics this is now the perfect electric mandolin.The Mandoblaster..... Four- string heavyness. Can be heard on "SomethingWeird" from the CD THRASH.The Chameleon..... Looks like 'Blaster sounds like The Skull,more versatile string configuration. The Stick.... A present from Vladomir. A 28 inch polished black 2x4 with strings.There have been many subtle modifications in the mechanics (bridge,etc) and the electronics (an active pickup is especially effective on the upper ranges of an electric mandolin).My instruments' electronics, pick-ups and strings are all commonly available but uncommonly applied. Each instrument has a different pickup configuration.Many guitar makers have attempted to make electric mandolins but few succeed. They don't think like Les Paul. The electric guitar is not designed to sound or feel like an acoustic instrument. You don't make the body too deep like an acoustic, you don't have the body too far down the neck and you make this heavy thing feel comfortable.The same applies to electric mandolins. If you try to emulate an acoustic instrument, it will fail miserably, because it will not be 'fuzz-friendly'!. Gibson is the template for my instruments but the final evolution was unique.
Neck
The neck is the most important part of any acoustic or electric stringed instrument. The shape (depth and width) is important to each individual player. It is all a matter of feel. When I first held that electric Gibson mandolin, I knew that it felt good to play it.The electric neck should not be positioned on the body like an acoustic intrument. By cutting away the solid body, it allows for better access to the upper register. Les Paul figured that out 50 years ago.The tuning pegs are all Schaeller, with 4 per side of the head.The body is mahogany, the neck is made of 100% cured Canadian maple.
Bridge
Gretsch Country Gentleman cut down and re-grooved for double strings.Tailpiece'Through the Body' ala Stratocaster. Less tension.Tension plate on the back of the instrument is a recessed 'nutbar'originally made for the nut of a steel guitar.This nutbar is a solid piece of steel and is inverted. Eight holes are drilled and it becomes a solid string plate.
Pickups
1/2 of a Double Eagle Precision Bass pickup. This pickup is no longer available but can be reproduced by using a Dimarzio P-Bass pickup.This pickup was chosen because it has 4 separate pole pieces for individual balance and volume levels. It is well placed for the 4 double strings of an electric mandolin.In order to increase volume and brightness with the P-Bass pickup,an Alembic preamp was included in the rear of the body thus creating an active pickup.The Mandoblaster is a 4-string instrument tuned down a fourth. It has a Bill Lawrence L-500 guitar pickup similar to the pickup found in aStrat. The pickup is a blade pole piece, creating better sustain. It is a stacked Humbucker, very loud and clean. It is so hot there is no active circuit needed.
Response to Effects
The electric mandolin is sonically in the upper range of a guitar.Some guitar effects sound terrible and others sound great. Each fuzz-box is different so I suggest experimenting.Most guitar effects don't work well with electric mandolins. A guitar has a much larger range and the deep notes from the bottom e-string can make even a cheap phase-shifter sound great but that same effect on a mandolin can be negligible.A mandolin is a higher sounding instrument than a guitar, but not a brighter one. Many mistakes have been made with electric mandolins and their pick-ups by creating an artificial acoustic clarity, making the instrument too brash sounding.Again, this bright characteristic doesn't work well with available guitar effects.I never change my tone knob setting on the instrument. It is always set on full treble, and this sound has been carefully created with the use of anactive pick-up.It is meant to fit in the mix or fill the mix. There is body as well as tone.I rarely adjust volume because I prefer to control my instruments with volume pedals.I believe in yin and yang. For something to sound really heavy,ugly, distorted and weird it must first be able to sound light, beautiful,clear and unique.The mandolin is the perfect instrument for such extremes.I have had many custom-made fuzzes ( the best being by Gord Gliese in Toronto) but even Gord bows to the Boss Metal Zone Fuzz. It's unique features include an overdrive on the fuzz output plus a parametric equalizer for tone control and even a mandolin can be tuned in beautifully.Flangers and phasors made for guitar do not work well with the mandolin.The tonal range isn't as big as a guitar so the effect of deep phase-shifting on a mandolin is not as apparent unless the sound is enhanced with fuzz first.By putting the effects in the proper order, one can create a variety of cool sounds. With no effects on, the sound of an electric or acoustic mandolin's fast double-strumming is reminicent of a day in Tennessee or an evening inVienna!Add to it fuzz, echo and other effects and the mandolin's small size roars with sonic ferocity. I have been a user of live echo effects for over 30 years. My first echo was a Fender Echo Chamber made in 1964. I purchased it in 1969.It was a single-loop tape echo with a moveable head around a cylinder that held the tape.Next came the Maestro Echolpex. At one time I had 4 of them.Other great tape echo machines included the Roland series of Chorus Echoes. They also took 1/4 inch reel-to-reel tape but you couldn't record loops on them.The Korg Echo had a tape cartridge that you inserted into the front of the box, and the feedback and speed were controlled by knobs on the front.The Korg could create cool sounds but there were 2 main drawbacks. The thin tape wore out easily and the cartidges were made specifically for these machines and became hard to find. I now use digital delays, and my favorite is the Roland SDE 1000.
As a recording artist, I thought the concept of MP3.com was a good promotional idea.
I gave the public, for free, the music that I created. Entire songs, no less.
I even gave a complete variety of works, all with the innocent idea that listeners would in turn connect to my web-site. It was hoped that the listener would be interested in hearing the rest of my recorded catalogue and perhaps support my career. As a free artistic representation, I willingly gave the public through MP3 my music without any compensation required. Now that my music is being bootlegged on Napster and other music-catalogue sites, I no longer feel there is any point in putting my unreleased catalogue onto MP3.com.
I cannot stop people from bootlegging my songs onto the Internet. The only way to stop this problem is by limiting the material that I make available to the public at large. This kind of piracy can only create a supply-and-demand kind of situation, whereby an independent artist like myself will demand exhorbitant prices for my CDs because the real thing only comes from Cut-Throat.
Tell your friends, go ahead, bootleg U2 all you want, but don't bootleg independent artists.
I have no protection from bootlegs ( neither does U2!) but I ask all Nash fans to buy the original thing.
Someday, it could be worth a lot of money.
Someday you might hear it again and say 'Damn that's good'.
Someday, there may be no more.
Listen in Safety,
Nash
The Corporate Music Companies that might lay claim to this CD are numerous. They all have one thing in common; they don't give a damn. Do they really care if I sell a thousand copies of this CD? Their lunch bill is more than the 'cease and desist' order. Their lawyers cost more than any renumeration they might get.
Here is the corporate breakdown.
The album was released in 1980 on Dindisc records, a subsidiary of Virgin UK. Why not on Virgin you ask?
Virgin was up to its eyeballs with a lot of popular new bands such as Simple Minds and Ultravox while Dindisc had OMD as their main artist and they needed more esoteric product. The arrangement suited me fine, as I had access to the Virgin promo team any time I wanted. Both companies were easy to deal with.
The album was distributed in different countries through Polygram Records. These territories included Germany, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Canada and Australia.
It was never released in the USA as Virgin had tried and failed to have their own American branch in New York City. Virgin was not happening in America.
In Canada, Polygram eventually gave the distribution rights to their subsidiary A&M Records, and the last known recorded form of the near-extinct Children LP was available only on cassette in the 1988 catalogue of A&M Records Canada. All other territories had since deleted the album from existence.
Ownership now takes a Darwinian twist. If creative product is deleted from the catalogue, is it non-existent? To make a long story longer, Polygram was consumed by Universal. Are they interested in this story? I doubt it.
Dindisc, along with the Branson Empire known as Virgin UK was bought up by EMI which was subsequently devoured by the bigger fish Time/Warner. You see, I know who they are. Do they care who I am?
This LP is in the bucket of my musical well, while it is waterlogged at the bottom of theirs.
Years ago some little company put this out on vinyl. Now, twenty years later, another little company is re-releasing it on CD with extra tracks.
It was mastered from a vinyl copy made in West Germany. It has been re-produced in Canada with extra tracks from the vaults of Cut-Throat and is available to anyone on planet Earth and the known universe.
Do you want this CD?
Then I might as well give it to you because no one else can.
I believe I have put out a quality product by releasing the CD of Children of the Night and I believe I have a right to do so.
I welcome any challenges to this assertion.
I can always use the publicity.
Nash the Slash
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