Bill Nelson

Bill mentions his use of synths and more. "I soon added other synths, including a Solina String Machine and a Yamaha CS70M. I also was an early adopter of drum machine technology and synth-guitars. (I had one of the first Hagstrom Patch 2000 synth-guitars which I used on the 'Drastic Plastic' album.)"

Bill mentions several effects units. "I still have and use my Line 6 Pod II but also have a Line 6 Pod HD500, a Digitech Valve FX, a Zoom 2030S, a Boss ME-50, a Korg Toneworks AX-10 A and a Fractal Audio AXE FX II XL guitar processor, plus several stand alone analogue pedals."

Bill mentions he used this in the Be Bop Deluxe period in the 70s. "The modulation effect on 'Sister Seagull,' (if I remember back so many long ago years,) was a Univibe and an MXR Phase 90."

In the 1978 live performance video "BE BOP DELUXE SHINE LIVE 1978 Rhode Island" on YouTube, Bill Nelson is seen playing a Yamaha SG2000, as depicted on the album cover.

Bill discusses taking this guitar for a repair. "I've also taken my J.Joye 'Bel Air' guitar to Gordon as it has some problems which need fixing."

Bill lists several effects units. "I still have and use my Line 6 Pod II but also have a Line 6 Pod HD500, a Digitech Valve FX, a Zoom 2030S, a Boss ME-50, a Korg Toneworks AX-10 A and a Fractal Audio AXE FX II XL guitar processor, plus several stand alone analogue pedals."

Bill mentions he used this in the Be Bop Deluxe period in the 70s. "The modulation effect on 'Sister Seagull,' (if I remember back so many long ago years,) was a Univibe and an MXR Phase 90."

BN – well, my first serious amplifier was a vox ac30, which was back in the 60s, I wish I still had it now, but I certainly wasn’t powerful enough – before that I had a little rosetti lucky seven amp which was about three watts or something, then after the vox I got … I think I wanted at the time a marshall but couldn’t afford it, and carlsbro came out with 50 and 100 watt heads and 4×12 cabinets at a much more affordable price, so I bought a fifty watt head and 4×12 cab and then when bebop started to happen and we were playing bigger places I bought a 100 watt carlsbro head and ended up with two of those and I think that the full rig that I ended up with in bbd was two carlsbro 100 watt heads, two H&H tape echo units, 6 SAI custom built speaker cabinets, with 2 12s in each, a big pete cornish pedalboard and a custom made preamp on one of the amps so I could push the front end get some natural distortion as well as having the option to kick in pedals, so it was quite an elaborate setup by the end of bebop, and then I tried to scale things back a bit at one point, particularly when digital processors came out – I remember buying that first small zoom unit, remember you could clip it on and thinking this is a fantastic thing, no need to lug amps around, just plug it straight into the pa, monitor through the monitors and it just sits there on your strap, but before long my digital setup ended up as complicated as anything if not more so than anything I had with bbd, what i’ve got now is a rack with three different processors, an oldish zoom 2050s rackmount, a digitex valve fx, i’ve got a pod, the early pod 2, which I use almost exclusively in the studio, not anything else, i’ve got a vetta 2, line 6 vetta 2 amp which I used on the tour in 2004, i’ve got a custom made carlsbro valve amp, which they built for me for the 2004 tour, which I designed, it’s based around the 50watt head that they made but the actual cosmetic of it, is something else, again it looks like its come from the jetsons, and then i’ve just had a signature amp made by a guy who’s based up here in yorkshire, and has an amp building company called rosewell, and he’s a real expert at vintage amp design, and initially did one in a tweed case rather like an old fender band master, and now he’s made one which to look at is more to my style, it’s a two-tone maroon and off-white with three 10s in it, and it’s a 40 watt combo, it’s not huge but it’s heavy. But has a really nice sound, he sources vintage speakers for his amps, and they’re well worth looking at if you’ve not seen them before I think he’s got a website – and then i’ve got couple of quirky things, i’ve got an old shaftesbury amp, which has elliptical speakers, it looks a bit like a tv front style thing, it’s pale blue and grey with a chrome grill that could have come off a 1960 vauxhall cresta by the look of it, but it’s an interesting looking thing I bought it first of all because it lookd so cool, it’d look really nice in the studio, but wen I plugged it in it’s got a sound all of its own, it has a built in vibrato, tremelo unit, these two elliptical speakers, and if you want the guitar to sound lik the kinks’ you really got me, I hasn’t got ripped speakers but it sounds like they are, a rally ratty tone to it – and it’s good for using for certain things and then i’ve got a selma little giant amp, which is very bijou, and again, close-miked it gets a good sound at low volumes. I think that carlsbro made briefly in the 90s which looks like one of these tower space heaters silver metal, it’s 8-sided it’s actually called the tower, and it lights up blue, with the speakers at the bottom it lights up blue – all transistorised, solid state, again it has a particular sound, it’s great for punky kind of stuff, it’s not a very sophisticated sound, but sometimes you don’t want that.BN – well, my first serious amplifier was a vox ac30, which was back in the 60s, I wish I still had it now, but I certainly wasn’t powerful enough – before that I had a little rosetti lucky seven amp which was about three watts or something, then after the vox I got … I think I wanted at the time a marshall but couldn’t afford it, and carlsbro came out with 50 and 100 watt heads and 4×12 cabinets at a much more affordable price, so I bought a fifty watt head and 4×12 cab and then when bebop started to happen and we were playing bigger places I bought a 100 watt carlsbro head and ended up with two of those and I think that the full rig that I ended up with in bbd was two carlsbro 100 watt heads, two H&H tape echo units, 6 SAI custom built speaker cabinets, with 2 12s in each, a big pete cornish pedalboard and a custom made preamp on one of the amps so I could push the front end get some natural distortion as well as having the option to kick in pedals, so it was quite an elaborate setup by the end of bebop, and then I tried to scale things back a bit at one point, particularly when digital processors came out – I remember buying that first small zoom unit, remember you could clip it on and thinking this is a fantastic thing, no need to lug amps around, just plug it straight into the pa, monitor through the monitors and it just sits there on your strap, but before long my digital setup ended up as complicated as anything if not more so than anything I had with bbd, what i’ve got now is a rack with three different processors, an oldish zoom 2050s rackmount, a digitex valve fx, i’ve got a pod, the early pod 2, which I use almost exclusively in the studio, not anything else, i’ve got a vetta 2, line 6 vetta 2 amp which I used on the tour in 2004, i’ve got a custom made carlsbro valve amp, which they built for me for the 2004 tour, which I designed, it’s based around the 50watt head that they made but the actual cosmetic of it, is something else, again it looks like its come from the jetsons, and then i’ve just had a signature amp made by a guy who’s based up here in yorkshire, and has an amp building company called rosewell, and he’s a real expert at vintage amp design, and initially did one in a tweed case rather like an old fender band master, and now he’s made one which to look at is more to my style, it’s a two-tone maroon and off-white with three 10s in it, and it’s a 40 watt combo, it’s not huge but it’s heavy. But has a really nice sound, he sources vintage speakers for his amps, and they’re well worth looking at if you’ve not seen them before I think he’s got a website – and then i’ve got couple of quirky things, i’ve got an old shaftesbury amp, which has elliptical speakers, it looks a bit like a tv front style thing, it’s pale blue and grey with a chrome grill that could have come off a 1960 vauxhall cresta by the look of it, but it’s an interesting looking thing I bought it first of all because it lookd so cool, it’d look really nice in the studio, but wen I plugged it in it’s got a sound all of its own, it has a built in vibrato, tremelo unit, these two elliptical speakers, and if you want the guitar to sound lik the kinks’ you really got me, I hasn’t got ripped speakers but it sounds like they are, a rally ratty tone to it – and it’s good for using for certain things and then i’ve got a selma little giant amp, which is very bijou, and again, close-miked it gets a good sound at low volumes. I think that carlsbro made briefly in the 90s which looks like one of these tower space heaters silver metal, it’s 8-sided it’s actually called the tower, and it lights up blue, with the speakers at the bottom it lights up blue – all transistorised, solid state, again it has a particular sound, it’s great for punky kind of stuff, it’s not a very sophisticated sound, but sometimes you don’t want that.

I’m a big fan of contemporary guitars that nod to quirky instruments from the ’50s and ’60s. My Musicvox MI-6 has a retro-futuristic look, as does my Backlund Model 100.

In this video, Nelson is using a Tobacco Sunburst Gibson ES-345 with a Bigsby Tremolo system.

Nelson can be seen in this video using a surf green Dusenberg Starplayer TV.

Bill lists several effects units. "I still have and use my Line 6 Pod II but also have a Line 6 Pod HD500, a Digitech Valve FX, a Zoom 2030S, a Boss ME-50, a Korg Toneworks AX-10 A and a Fractal Audio AXE FX II XL guitar processor, plus several stand alone analogue pedals."

Bill mentions his use of a Minimoog in the 70s. "I bought a synth, (a mini-moog,) way back in the '70's, some time prior to writing the 'Drastic Plastic' album, I think. I bought it from a band/duo called 'Hudson-Ford, (an offshoot of 'The Strawbs,') who had not found the synth of much use to them. I immediately took to it and it became a major compositional tool when I created demos for the songs that went onto the 'Drastic Plastic' and 'Sound-On-Sound' albums. It also featured heavily on the 'Quit Dreaming' sessions and far beyond."

To the left is an effects rack with Signex CP44 patchbay, a custom-made device to make the trigger point of a signal tighter, an MXR 01 reverb, Roland SDE3000 delay, Yamaha SPX90 multi-effects unit, Boss DE20 digital delay, Fostex 3050 digital delay, Fostex 3070 compressor/limiter, Marshall 5002 Time Modulator, JVC cassette deck and Ibanez UE4000 multi-effects unit.

To the left is an effects rack with Signex CP44 patchbay, a custom-made device to make the trigger point of a signal tighter, an MXR 01 reverb, Roland SDE3000 delay, Yamaha SPX90 multi-effects unit, Boss DE20 digital delay, Fostex 3050 digital delay, Fostex 3070 compressor/limiter, Marshall 5002 Time Modulator, JVC cassette deck and Ibanez UE4000 multi-effects unit.

''The Eastwood Doral Archtop is a beautiful (now discontinued) jazz-style guitar, with coil-tapped humbuckers. Once again, you can see that Bill Nelson love a beautiful guitar which is also very versatile. When tone meets style, you can't really ask for more!''

''The Eastwood Wandre ’Tri-Lam' is now discontinued, but you can see how it inspired certain aspects of both of our Bill Nelson signature series... so it's not a surprise he also liked the Tri-lam!''

Bill lists several effects units. "I still have and use my Line 6 Pod II but also have a Line 6 Pod HD500, a Digitech Valve FX, a Zoom 2030S, a Boss ME-50, a Korg Toneworks AX-10 A and a Fractal Audio AXE FX II XL guitar processor, plus several stand alone analogue pedals."

Bill lists several effects units. "I still have and use my Line 6 Pod II but also have a Line 6 Pod HD500, a Digitech Valve FX, a Zoom 2030S, a Boss ME-50, a Korg Toneworks AX-10 A and a Fractal Audio AXE FX II XL guitar processor, plus several stand alone analogue pedals."

Bill mentions his use of synths and more. "I soon added other synths, including a Solina String Machine and a Yamaha CS70M. I also was an early adopter of drum machine technology and synth-guitars. (I had one of the first Hagstrom Patch 2000 synth-guitars which I used on the 'Drastic Plastic' album.)"

Bill mentions he still owns the synth. "Yes, I do still have the Yamaha DX7 keyboard, though I don't really use it these days. Many of the sounds on it are available on the Yamaha Motif, which is my main keyboard. But the DX7 was groundbreaking when it first came out, an astonishing instrument and very complicated to program."

This 9050 is used in addition to other units. "Yes, I've been using the Pod 2, the Zoom 9050S and the Digitech valve FX live for some years now, though nowadays, in the studio, I'm using just the Pod 2 and the Fractal AxeFX, with an occasional use of the Pod HD 500. That's it, no amps or analogue pedals, just digital straight to desk."

A poster had images of a Fostex A8. Bill answered "Well, at one time or another, I've used ALL those items of equipment to make my recordings!"

A poster had an image of a Fostex 350. Bill answered "Well, at one time or another, I've used ALL those items of equipment to make my recordings!"

A poster had an image of a DR-55. Bill answered "Well, at one time or another, I've used ALL those items of equipment to make my recordings!"

A poster had an image of a TR-808. Bill answered "Well, at one time or another, I've used ALL those items of equipment to make my recordings!"

For most of the 21st century, Bill has used this to record. "Right now, however, I'm hoping to get my Mackie D8B mixing desk repaired, though I think the cost will be exorbitant."

My Nelsonic Transitone signature model made by Campbell American, and my Astroluxe Custom and Cadet signature guitars made by Eastwood are on the album, too.

My Nelsonic Transitone signature model made by Campbell American, and my Astroluxe Custom and Cadet signature guitars made by Eastwood are on the album, too.

That guitars is a project of Eastwood Custom, and a DLX version with Duesenberg Les Trem Tremolo System.

In the middle of all this assorted kitsch stands Nelson's home studio gear, most elements of which are actually also well on their way to becoming objects of nostalgia, even if they don't quite qualify (yet) as kitsch. Centre stage goes to an Allen & Heath System-8 24-channel desk and a Fostex B16 16-track tape recorder. To the right of it is a keyboard rack with an Emu E4K (his master keyboard and main sampler), Yamaha DX7 MkI and Akai MPC60.