Mellotron Archives

April 15, 1993

Yea, we're still here. After one of the worst winters seen in this little corner of the U.S., we still managed
to keep a few old trons alive. Most needed major surgery and T.L.C. but they are making music again.
This has also unfortunately seriously depleted our parts supply and I'm out of alot of stuff. Some things are
getting remanufactured: SMS 4MR motor boards, tape cutting, newly designed tape racks (Terry Kelley and Robert L.), Tape frame cases (Marcus Resch), Videos 1&2 and a few other little nick knacks. Things we are no longer supplying are usually still available and we'll be happy to point you in the right direction to find them on your own. Terry Kelley and
the original Mellotron motor circuit designer Peter Leavesly have been sorting out the MK II systems and
Terry has a pretty good handle on reviving SSCU circuits now. This is good news to a small number of
you but important none the less. It was quite a detective job as most of this operation has been. Hemlock
Stones strikes again.
We are no longer selling Mellotrons outside of the U.S. The shipping has been a nightmare for us
to get machines to Italy, Sweden, U.K. etc.. and we've lost money on most of these sales. What we will
continue to do is referrals to machines and customers in far away lands. The shipping for a 400 across the
water is in the 700.00 to 1000.00 range and it really doesn't make sense to do this when there are
machines all over the world.
It's just a matter of finding them and I'll be happy to put you in contact with the tron closest to you. Be
prepared to do the Customs shuffle.
The Rhyme Of The Ancient Sampler now has a release date of May 1st, '93 on Voiceprint, U.S.
office in Kansas City Mo. (my home town!) The English address is P.O. box 5, Stanley, Co. Durham
DH9-7HR, Great Britain. American distributorship hasn't been set up yet, so for now this is the address
for orders. Martin is already getting ready to do another CD with the same cast of characters. Martin did a
wonderful job on this his first effort. Can you imagine trying to get all those guys together and making a
cohesive package out of it? It really is a gorgeous album and high time we heard from these guys. Pinder,
Moraz, Cross, ....I lost girlfriends over these guys.
Miller Freeman Publications has asked Mark Vail to do a book on Vintage Stuff and he tells me
it will be out this summer complete with color photos and updates/rewrites of the column in Keyboard
Mag. No self respecting tron nut should be without it. We would also like to thank Mark for including us
and referring calls to us for the tron and Chamberlin.
I would like to take a minute to appologize to a few of you who made tape orders this winter and
had to wait longer than the usual 3 or 4 weeks. When I recieved the last batch of tape from L.J.B. this last
fall things went well untill I came up to one of 4 reels that had been recorded on before. This wouldn't
normally be a problem except that the track width of whatever machine this recording was done on was
quite a bit wider than my Ampex 350 machines here. The result was stuff would appear to have erased
only to show up again once it was put in a Mellotron rack and played. The upshot is that I didn't realize
the problem until folks loaded the tapes in their racks. BUUUMMMER!! Anyway, they've all been
replaced with Ampex 456 virgin tape with exception of you MK II guys who will recieve yours by the end
of May. The MK II and 300 require one whole reel per side of tape and the Kelley/Laughton cutter will be
in full swing by then.
I'm glad you folks enjoyed the video, we had lots of good response and it seems the mission has
been acomplished. The PAL versions will be available in June for you guys in the U.K. and on the
Continent.
Thanks to J.M. in Alabama for the '67 Dodge Van seat.
Recent prog discoveries for ya ( tron of course): The Enid, Terpandre, Machiavel and dear lord
those first two Gracious albums are killers!! GREAT MK II by Martin Kitcat. If you are a big fan of the
tron flute sound you've got to hear the Terpandre album. The Enid are very symphonic in a unique way
and although the Mellomachine gets buried often in the mile deep mix, it's there. Machiavel- Mechanical
Moonbeams reminds me alot of Triumvirat but with guitar and and keys; good synth playing abounds.
Our friend Steve Frothingham and his band Marble Orchard have a new album out called " Agent
Invisible ". Steve plays drums and Tron on this outing. Call him for a copy. Vinyl even!!
Tom Gogo and I have put together a Mellotron "company" time line together that I find interesting. It's as
accurate as far as we can tell from consulting L.J.B. and others.

BRADMATIC LTD. -developers, manufacturers.

BRADMATIC PRODUCTIONS

STREETLY ELECTRONICS

ERIC ROBINSON ORG. -financed and set up Mellotronics

MELLOTRONICS LTD.

DALLAS ARBITER-employed Bill Eberline who after the collapse of Dallas bought Mellotronics and
the name "Mellotron" and formed Sound Sales. He continued to stock Streetly parts
and tapes and developed the Mellotron 4 track. Only four were built. The stock was
then sold to Plateau and Mellotron U.S.A.

DALLAS MUSIC IND. STREETLY ELEC.-Streetly continues to build trons,
calling them Novatrons. They also build
and sell the MK V and the T-550 until 1988.
DALLAS MUSIC LTD. PLATEAU
ELEC.

SOUND SALES INC./BOMAR FABRICATORS NIGHT OWL
EL.

MELLOTRON U.S.A.

MELLOTRON DIGITAL CORP.

MELLOTRON ARCHIVES
We bought the stock of Mellotron Digital first and then the stock of Streetly three months later, I was
under the mistaken impression that the M.D. tapes were the original tapes. We soon learned that Les
Bradley still had those tapes, hence that acquisition. The M.D. tapes were the 8 trk masters that were
originally used by Mellotronics. They were compiled by Les Bradley. The M.D. stock provided the
majority of the parts that we have been rapidly depleting. When Streetly went "up the spout", Leslie barely
managed to save the original tapes and little of the parts stock. He has a wealth of memorabilia and stories
and continues to advise us on history of the instrument and technical stuff, not to mention the folks that
worked with him. I wish I could have been there. Thanks again Les.
The confusion about pricing of Mellotron\Novatron instruments after the sale of Mellotronics
came about as a result of Sound Sales/Plateau/Night Owl markup on Streetly manufactured goods. You
could buy a MK V from Streetly for about 6000.00 U.S. with Novatron on the front panel. The same
instrument imported by S.S. with the name Mellotron on the front panel sold for a whopping 9000.00. I
have S.S. and Plateau flyers with this price on them.
Mellotron Digitals sole contribution to this story was recompiling the 400 masters for a planned
sampler called the XT 2000. There was one prototype built by Chuck Fadonsak and it's sitting in his
living room in Destin Fla. The XT 2000 ad you may have seen in Keyboard Magazine was an empty shell
basically. To impress investors they put an IBM XT. monitor in a white case with "Spirit" sequencing
software running. Two Akai S900 samplers playing tron sounds provided the noise and they managed to
keep financing propped up for another year while Chuck slaved away on the real machine. Eventually,
things caught up with them and they went bankrupt. This was Jim McNelly's baby but a fellow named
Ron Skinner did the tron tapes for them. For the record, Ron is a great guy and loved his job at M.D. he
had nothing to do with the sampler project. Chuck kept all of the Mellotron XT development goodies and
sold me all of the "old" stuff. The last time I spoke to him, he was planning on finishing this machine and
selling it in the Fairlight/Synclavier league. This was two years ago. Chuck also owns a pretty rosewood M400. We haven't heard from Bill Eberline but I'm sure he
could shed some further light on a few particulars we've speculated on here concerning the Mellotronics
sale. There are still a couple of tapes missing and I suspect that Bill has them but all efforts to contact him
directly have failed.
Our friends at Art Sublime and Syn-Phonic are gonna have a shindig in May called Progfest '93,
it will be a concert deluxe featuring IQ, Djam Karet, Kalaban, Quill, Episode, Now, Citadel and Codece.
The dates are May 29th and 30th at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. The tickets are 30.00 for both days
and there are arrangements for el cheapo Holiday Inn rates (25.00/night, multiple occupancy). For more
information call Dave Overstreet at 310-329-7254 or fax at 310-515-0840. The address is Progfest '93,
P.O. Box 473, GARDENA CA.
90248. This is IQs first U.S. appearence. Two Mellotron 400's are said to be lurking in the vicinity.
Those of you who have wondered about the whereabouts of Robert Fripps machines may be
interested to know that they are now for sale. Martin Smith and John Bradley just finished refurbishing
them and Frippy wants to sell them. There are two MK II's that were used of course on the first three
Crimson albums and the two M400s (one black and one white) that were used on Islands through Red.
The MK II's are 7000.00 each and the M400s are 4000.00 each. Yeah, that's a bunch of money, but Robert
thinks that some collector nut will pay that price. If there ever was a famous tron, it's got to be one of
these or Mike Pinders various machines.
We have no interest in this sale, so if you would like to inquire about them give Martin Smith a call in
England at:011-44-88-922-211. Please remember that they are eight hours ahead of Pacific time.
Tapes and racks sold after May will come to you unmounted, if you've never loaded tapes in a
frame I assure you that it's not a big deal. That is of course unless you've mounted dozens of them like we
have. The process takes a couple of hours if you follow the instructions on the video. It's one of the main
reasons we did the video in the first place. This does not apply to MK II and M300 tapes, those I will
install if you want to go to the expense of putting me and your machine together or want me on the phone
as you put them in. This is not a job to be taken lightly.
We now have three new sets of tapes available. The first is a variation on the split choir set that
places the female voices starting at key 18 down to "take" five. This gives you a much smoother transition
at the split. The second is a solo violin that Les had ready to go. The collapse of Streetly happened before
he could release it.
It is available with most of the common sounds. The last is a celeste that really takes on an eerie sound
when played in a tron. We are now set up to put custom stuff on tron tapes also. All you have to do is
assign the keys and provide a dat or standard cassette of the material. Those of you with two or more
racks may be interested to know about the recent discovery of 12 original rack cases in excellent
condition. These things almost NEVER show up. Yours for 75.00 each, first come basis.
The new racks are nearing production and are a great improvement on the old ones. They work
on a similar principle to a tape measure retract device and offer these advantages: They are a LOT smaller
and less prone to damage. They can hold more tape (yes, we're fooling around with the idea of
lengthening the sounds). They are a breeze to load new tapes in and the return time is a little faster. Once
again, this is a Kelley/Laughton brain child. M.A. south to the rescue! The cost will be at or under the
current price of the old style racks. I'll let you know as soon as they're available. We want to be sure they
treat your tapes nicely. If you're wondering about the strain on the tapes when they return, I suggest you
try some time to pull a cassette tape in two. Only sustained pull can stretch them even a small amount
Tell your guitar playing buddies that we are going to reissue the Uni-Vibe tremolo/leslie
simulator. What's it sound like? Listen to any early '70s Robin Trower, Hendrix used one(Star Spangled
Banner) and so did Stevie Ray Vaughn. It's a very cool noise. I first owned one in 1972 and paid 75.00 for
it brand new and they now routinely go for 800.00 with the pedal controller. That's ridiculous and we're
going to cut that price at least in two, with the original components.
I guess that about sums up the winter goings on here. Thanx to all of you who've sent tapes,
letters and suggestions. We love hearing from you.

Have a Great Spring!

Dave, Sandi, Ashley, Kelly, Gretchen, George, Foxy, Sassy,
and Bowser (the Fee). What's a cubit?