By Ketil Svendsen
Ebay is a dangerous place, especially so for those of us with collections – of any kind – reaching the you’ve-got-it-all-in-three-different-editions level. But still some of us continue our fearless hunt for any relics thinkable and available. Or unthinkable. Or unavailable. Or both: Holy Grail, anyone?
Being an avid Hawkwind collector (all the gatefolds? yes! Barney Bubbles posters? yes! Books? indeed! 8-track cartridges? almost! Solo work? for good and bad, yes! Bootleg and tape trades? don’t ask!) I stumbled upon a chunky, weird sounding device and – after some harassment of people from different cultures and time zones – bought the thing.
This must’ve been around the same time I also considered buying Inner City Unit’s battered & beaten old VCS3, and Gilli “space whisper” Smyth’s RE-201 Space echo (while already owning one beforehand).
Nik Turner, one man freakshow. Or frogshow.
The National ME-940 Wah-Hurricane-Siren-Surf thingy was bought from a member of a group Turner has collaborated with, or, as it sounded, his wife/girlfriend: the sleepy voice from a totally different time zone definitely wasn’t male. No hard feeling from that department (I think), it soon got to be mine. Apparently it was owned and used by space rock legend Nik Turner from the early 70s and up to recent, and most notably on the 1971 Hawkwind album “X in search of Space”. While I have my doubts about studio use – it being totally lo-fi, and totally in the wrong manner – I can imagine it being used live.
The wah-wah is not very juicy, the volume pedal option noisy, and the surf/hurricane mode is not exactly the Beach Boys’ idea of good clean fun at the seaside: it’s merely a white noise signal that can be pedal-ed into whatever you decide to run through.
But then again, this is your chance to master and mimic the instrument used at the end of the Beatles’ “I want you (she’s so heavy)” on the Abbey Road LP: white noise, supplied by Bob Moog in a modular mood.
And yes, it’s got a built-in police siren.
owned by things 
