| Mellotron Archives Feb 19, 1995
Hello once again from Mellotron Archives, I hope you’ve have had a good ‘95 so far. The end of ‘94 proved to be almost more than your author could keep up with, but now things have settled a bit and I can catch you up on things Mellotronish. The first order of business is the new address and business hours. The new digs and studio location address is: 10107 Kory Lane, Moses Lake WA. 98837. Business and “lets call Dave and bitch about Mellotrons”, times are from 10 AM to 6 PM Tuesday through Saturday. Thanx to all of you who did not call during last summers break. To those of you who called and got flamed; I apologize, but, I warned you. This can be a maddening business. A new price list for those uninformed: Does anyone remember the Sounds Sales ad in Keyboard Magazine- “Trade in your Mellotron” ? Well, we would like to buy your Mellotron. If you’re interested, give me a call to discuss price and condition. We are also interested in purchasing old tape frames for renovation and resale. The tapes aren't going to be worth much to me, but I’ll pay up to 200.00 each for racks, depending on their condition. Rumor has it the new King Crimson album (no, not vroom.) has a lot of Mk II Mellotron on it (finally) and Mr. Fripp is once again in love with his instruments. Lots of ‘tron on the new Pearl Jam record also. New owners: Charlie Gillingham of Counting Crows now owns # 142, Page McConnell of Phish owns a 400SM #905, Damon Fox bought a Chamberlin M-2 and the Martin Kikat “Gracious” Mk II from us. Terry (gimme a problem) Kelley now owns Mk II # 253. This machine once belonged to Graham Bond and was used on the first hit single to use the Mellotron. The song was “This Wheel’s On Fire” by the Graham Bond Organization with Julie Driscoll. It was later rerecorded by Ms. Driscoll with Brian Auger and Trinity, but the first version, (released in the U.K. only) predated Mike Pinders' “Love and Beauty” by 7 months. Of course the next piece to showcase the Mellotron was Strawberry Fields Forever. Other new caretakers: Gary Schmidt-Mk V and M400, Par Lindh- Mk V,Markus Resch- M400, Pierre Veilleux- 5 or 6 hundred more M 400’s and a Mk V, Pearl Jam- M400, Robert Laughton- 2 M400’s (both for sale), Brindon O’Brian- M400, Les Holcombe- M400 and Brian Kehew now has the much coveted white Mk II that once graced the stage of Tony Banks and Genesis. New Mellotron Archives aquistions: Rosewood M400 from the 400 owners book, Chamberlin M-2 and Harry Chamberlins’ personal M-4 Riviera. I have photos available of this M-4 with Harry playing it. Markus Resch has rebuilt the Oak Mellotron and I believe this is the first time this machine has ever been operational. Markus had to modify the cabinet interior to fit the mainframe. The new Uni-Vibe is now available for you guitar guys. This thing sounds just like the real (800.00) McCoy that all the collector dudes are selling. Yours for 350.00. New C.D. releases- Michael Piper of Wild Places fame has released the first Gracious album “This is Gracious” on the Renaissance Label along with all four Devil Doll titles. He also has Spacious Minds’ “Sleepy Eyes and Butterflies” on two L.P.s worth of vinyl. and the two Asia (no, not that Asia) L.P.’s on C.D.., twin guitars and Mellotron abound. Contact: The Wild Places, 621 A. Hanover St., Santa Cruz, California, 95062. Phone: 408-427-3043. Ken Golden at The Lasers Edge has the following new stuff for sale- White Willow, Ignis Fautus, available by the end of Feb. ‘95 has already generated near hysterical raves from the few that have heard it. The sound is very melodic prog ala Celeste but with a much thicker instrumentation. Male and female vocals are featured and this is a great example of the ‘tron cello tapes. This is the “must own” C.D. of the year so far; really folks, you gotta hear this thing. Spektakel: pre SFF with Schike and Frohling, previously unreleased. SFF Collected Works: 2 C.D.’s with Symphonic Pictures, Sunburst and Ticket To Everywhere. Beautifully remastered to C.D. Sailor Free- The Fifth Door. This is a more modern sounding prog offering with a fair amount of tron. Call Lasers Edge at: 609-751- 6444 or E— Mail at lasercd@aol.com. Anekdoten has a new C.D. in the works, stay tuned. We are looking for a few things that you may have for sale or trade. A finders fee is also offered for these items if you just have a line on one. ARP 2600, ARP 2500, ARP Sequencer, Bode frequency shifter and vocoder, Moog variable oscillator and Taurus 1 pedals, Ionic Performer, Optigan disks, Plush guitar amps, Selmer guitar amps, Vox Super Beatle guitar amps or cabinets, Stylophone, Buchla,Buchla,Buchla, (I will trade a new Gleeman Pentaphonic Clear for a Buchla Music Easle.) Korg vocoder, Lyricon, Steiner Parker EVI , Emmet Chapman Patch of Shades and anything with the word clavioline on it. We are still trying to locate Bill Eberline and any leads would be greatly appreciated. It seems like this guy fell off the planet after the demise of Sound Sales. He was last seen selling a Mellotron 4track to Drew Arnott in a Vancouver B.C. back alley. Next on the agenda is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. As most of you know, Bill Fransen, Leslie Bradley and his brothers Frank and Norman where the builders/designers of the ‘tron. They took a brilliant idea of Harry Chamberlins’ and refined it into a usable musical instrument. We all owe a huge debt of thanks to these guys and I think it’s time to pay the mechanical piper. All I’m asking is that you send Les a letter with your thanks/Mellotron story/observations etc. to the address given below. He has been ill this last 18 months or so and would also probably benefit from your prayers for good heath. Les is a great man but enjoys his privacy: please don’t abuse this information. The music business really was unkind to these men. Maybe we can help make it up to them with an expression of gratitude. Leslie J. Bradley #3 Longmoor Rd Sutton Coldfield West Midlands B73-6UB United Kingdom A little ‘tronny tech talk: Recently while replacing a couple of tapes in my Mk-V, I ran into an interesting situation. When I had finished putting the replacements in, I found that the A and C tracks where reversed!?! How did that happen? I rechecked the patch bay and the track selection on the ‘tron and did it again...... same result. After a lot of head scratching, it dawned on me that the reversed and fixed the problem. To the 30 of you lucky enough to own a Mk-V: keep this in mind when ordering tapes. Even Leslie (‘tron Yoda) Bradley hadn’t run into this one. I get asked a lot about whether I prefer the Chamberlin or the Mellotron. There isn’t a simple answer to this question for me. If it is a matter of maintainence or reconstruction, the Mellotron wins hands down. Even the thought of changing tapes in a Chamberlin makes my teeth itch. But, if we are talking about sound, it’s a more complicated matter. In my opinion, the Chamberlin is more successful at accomplishing the goal of reproducing the sounds on the tape. There is less tone color added, there is less wow and flutter and the tapes themselves are “better” I guess. However, if you need the sound of a Mellotron, a Chamberlin just won’t do! The Mellotron, (once again, in my opinion) has more personality and is much more recognizable than it’s American cousin. I love having a Chamberlin but I’ve gotta have a Mellotron. (Unpaid advertisement section) If you would like to closely A.B. comparison shop these two instruments, you should check out the Mellotron Archives C.D. ROM you’ve been seeing in Keyboard and Electronic Musician. magazines.This turned out to be a critical and artistic winner but a financial turkey. It’s defiantly a great sounding disc however and good opportunity to use these sounds in a more convenient manner. Justin Mayer kicked butt on this C.D. (smooth seque section) Speaking of Mr. Mayer, ahem, we’ve gotten quite a few inquiries about the J-Tron you might have seen in Keyboard Mag. This is the same unit, completed, that we featured in the Mellotron Video Vol.1. and boy is it amazing. A Keyboard from the 400, a motorless Chamberlin-like tape return system, 16 tracks, 4 output channels, 49 keys and sounds wonderful.It took Justin 4 years to build this thing and I’m green with envy! Anyway, some of you asked about availablity and here’s the scoop. He might build more if he gets enough orders. The price is 7000.00. You get your choice of finishes and I promise you that you’ll faint when you hear it. Contact: Justin Mayer, 5600 Empire Grade Rd., Santa Cruz California, 95060. Phone: 408-459-6887. Justin’s Omega to Harry’s Alpha. Brian Kehew is hot on the trail of the car built by Harry Chamberlin (!?!?). This is no joke folks. While looking for Chamberlin instruments in Harry’s old neighborhood, Brian ran into a guy who knows its’ whereabouts. I can’t wait to see this thing, but you can bet I won’t be riding in it. I’ll bet ya 100.00 it has a walnut Formica dash board and at least a dozen rubber belts. The last order of business is the additions to the List of Mellotron albums begun in the last M.A. Newsletter. We had quite a response to this thing. Many, many “Stairway to Heaven“ suggestions but John Paul Jones and Tom Gogo say “no, it was a recorder.” The live version on “The Song Remains The Same” used the tron flutes. Other suggestions were taken under advisement and were added or not completely on my whim and opinion. Hey, everybody's got one. A few guys sent in suggestions for titles they thought shouldn’t be on the list. Sargent Peppers? Sound effects from a grey sound effects console Mk-II. Yeah, I know, Mark Lewisohn’s book dosen’t mention it, but he didn’t know about the Bungalow Bill bit either. The point is this: there are 28 sounds in the Mellotron library not including the sound fx. Would you know the ‘tron Honkey Tonk piano if you heard it? I would. How many folks knew that all those Mountain organ parts where played by Steve Knight on a M400 Mellotron? Tympani on Celluoids “Neptune”. Moog Modular chords on Tomita albums. The flutes on the end of “Strawberry Fields Forever”. The jet in the intro to “Back In The U.S.S.R.” etc.etc... Thanks again to those that took the time to write in their suggestions. Tom Gogo, Scot Harvey, Jim Leggett, Sven Eriksen, Mike Ohman and Senore Garaldi. it’s still not perfect but it’s all we have. The Mellotron has certainly made its’ mark, hasn’t it? ‘Bye for now! D. the T. of K. |