QUESTION:

Were discrete mono mixes made for Electric Ladyland?

ANSWER:

While Jimi did create different mono and stereo mixes for his first two albums, he made no such effort for the group's third disc Electric Ladyland.

Nonetheless, there are mono copies of the Electric Ladyland album master in the EH tape library. However, this was achieved by simply 'folding' in the stereo imaging to create a new monophonic version during mastering. This work was done in Los Angeles by engineer Lee Herschberg for Reprise Records. Neither Hendrix nor Eddie Kramer was involved in this process. There are a number of tapes in the EH library which date from this period. For example, there are mono single versions of "All Along The Watchtower" and "Long Hot Summer Night", but these are clearly 'folded' versions of the original stereo master and not discrete mono mixes created by Hendrix.

While no such tapes were ever returned to EH which suggest otherwise, it is likely that Track followed a similar technical protocol. Track likely created a mono version from the stereo master copies they received from the US. Unlike the first two albums which had been mixed and mastered in the UK, with copy masters sent to Reprise, Electric Ladyland was entirely the opposite. That album was mixed and mastered in the US and a first generation copy master issued to Track for production in the UK.

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