On Satellite Sky, the last record that Los Angeles–based Heard released before he died, he played an electric mandolin on every track. The instrument in question was a 1939 National Resophonic metal-bodied model; the resonator had been removed and replaced with National's "Silvo" pickup attachment. (National offered this option for only a couple of years in the late '30s.) He also owned an Epiphone mandolin.