This installment features my all-time favorite mandolin player, Sam Bush. Just in case there is anyone on the planet who doesn't know about Sam and his great playing, visit his website: sambush.com I caught up with Sam at his suburban Nashville home and even got a snapshot of him with his recently acquired Custom A-5 some of you may recognize.
What is your main mandolin right now?
1937 F-5, that Tony Rice named "Old Hoss" many years ago, probably about 1977 when we were doing the Manzanita album. I also have several of the new Gibson Sam Bush Model mandolins that I use. Some of them are very loud and have more low-end than Hoss, but they don't seem to amplify as well. So we're working on that.
How long have you been playing Hoss?
It was acquired from Tut Taylor in January of '73, the same week I met Jethro. It was a very monumental week. Norman Blake had been playing this mandolin after the Aereo-Plain Band was down to just two people, him and John Hartford.
What are the things you like most about that particular mandolin?
I always loved the sound of the mandolin when Norman had it, but by the time I got it, Randy Wood had shaved the braces and put this beautiful, light brown varnish finish on it (replacing the ugly, '30s era
thick, yellow sunburst). Now I really loved it! The varnish really helped the sound of it.
Any special setup? Who does it for you?
Norman was the one that, sort of, widened the strings within the pair while he had it. That felt great to me, so I started liking it like that.
About '74, somewhere in there, I had Bob Givens take out the frets on the fingerboard extension because my pick hit it and clicks so badly. So I had it that way for a while but the pick still would click on the extension.
Then one day I saw Roland White, who had basically just sawed it off of his mandolin at that fret. I was always afraid that if you did that, that it would change your playing. So I asked Roland if it changed
the sound and he goes, "Yeah, that click's gone!" So about 2 months later we were in New York and I had John Monteleone saw it off. So John did the work on it. I think they look better with the long extension,
artistically, but it just doesn't agree with my playing the way my hand hits it.
In about '86 I had to have the original fretboard replaced. It had been re-fretted so many times that it was shot. So I had a Monteleone fretboard put on that was slightly arched and really liked that. Then in about '94, after all the wear and tear from the Newgrass Revival years, I had a Steve Anderson fretboard put on. Steve sent it to me and Harry Sparks installed it for me. Also, Charlie Derrington re-drilled the holes for the tuners to change the angle where it's less flared out. Now the wound strings don't hit each other and knock
themselves out of tune.
Harry Sparks in Cincinnati, Ohio does my frets. I just love the way he does the frets on Old Hoss. I don't know what he really does that's all that different
than anyone else, except he does leave a higher, rounder crown. They're also a little wider than a Loar-style fret and that just seems to agree with that mandolin and me.
And I have found that I really like the way David Harvey here in Nashville sets up the nuts and the bridges. He is very meticulous and knows my string gauges and has saws to fit those and that makes a nice, perfect fit on those.
How high would you say your action is?
I would say about a high-medium. David Harvey could probably tell you exactly what it is. One thing I have noticed is, especially on my old one, is that do have
my action a little higher at the nut than some people. Mainly so I can do pull-offs on the first string at the first fret. Just enough so I can do that.
What type of pick do you use?
Basically, it's a stock D'Andrea .96mm guitar style pick and I use the rounded edges.
What strings do you use and why?
I thought you'd never ask! Gibson Sam Bush Signature Model. And what they are is the Gibson strings I've been using almost all my life. They used to be called Gibson set number 161. They're the monel steel, they're not bronze. I've tried bronze, I've tried brass, I've tried stainless steel. I've always come back to these, I love the first string and the fourth, and really for what gauges people use now, they're not as heavy as what a lot of people like. Mine are .11, .14, .25 and .41, which is interesting because the .41 on the 4th is bigger than what a lot of people use, but the 2nd and 3rd are smaller. I've tried a .15 on the second but just like the .14 better on my old mandolin. I guess you would call them a medium gauge.
Any pickups, amps or effects?
A Barcus-Berry Hot Dot. They might be the crummiest pickup Barcus-Berry has ever made, but they just seem to match up with the lack of sustain that a mandolin has. They just don't pick up as much sustain as other pickups I've tried.
I also use a Countryman Iso Max II as the microphone that sits down at the bottom of the treble f-hole. That is wired into a stereo jack (with the pickup).
That goes to a "curly" cord. I still use curly cords so I don't step on them! Rick, our sound man, has to get them custom-made in stereo.
So that stereo cord runs to a preamp made by Richard Batallia, who was sound man for the Newgrass Revival. He invented this preamp box that would accommodate the stereo mic and pickup on your instrument. There's an output in the back that goes direct to the PA for the microphone, as well as an output that goes direct for the pickup. There's also an output that goes direct to the Polytone amp. I still love a Polytone Mini Brute II. It's a flat-sounding, great little amp for me.
The mic and the pickup run to the house PA, but the pickup only goes to monitors and my amp. Sure, it's not acoustic sound, it's acoustic-electric sounding, but it gives me the volume and power I need.
On a good
night, Rick Martini, our sound guy, puts more mic than pickup in the house mix, but on a rough sound night, like when the winds really blowing, he has the option of using more pickup if he has to. On all the acoustic instruments it's his goal out front to use the mic and not the pickup but some nights that's just not possible.
Jethro once told me, probably about 1975, "why don't you plug that thing in? I can't hear you." And I said something like, "I've got this great-sounding mandolin and I love this tone."
And Jethro said, "*#@* tone. No one ever told me I had great tone, they just told me they could hear all my notes. Why don't you plug that thing in? Who do you think you are, Bill Monroe?"
And I kind of stood there and thought about it and said, "well, you know, I would kinda like to be Bill Monroe." And he said, "Well, get over it. One's enough."
Any other equipment you can't do without?
What a great day it was when I got Waverly tuners on "Old Hoss"! I used to have to get new tuners about once a year because I change strings before every show and use a string winder. That seems to just wear them
out quicker. I've had the Waverlys on there since '96 or '97.
Note: Sam also talked at length about his electric mandolins, but due to space limitations, we'll save that for another time.
Bobby
Clarktd58tn@yahoo.com
www.williamsandclarkexpedition.com
