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MELLOTRON MYTHS
PLAUSIBLE?
CONFIRMED?
...or BUSTED!
Not everything you hear about Mellotrons is the truth. Let's bust a few
Mellotron myths!
Do you know of a Mellotron myth that needs to be BUSTED? Do you have
more information for me about any of these myths? Drop me a
note!
| Mellotrons were invented in England. Plausible?
Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Mellotrons were invented by Harry Chamberlin of the US. Two
Chamberlins were flown over to the UK and disassembled to serve as the basis
of the Mellotron Mark I design. Eventually Harry and the folks
producing Mellotrons came to an agreement, and a sum of money was paid to
Harry as royalties for his designs and patents. Myth BUSTED! |
| Mellotrons use tape loops. Plausible?
Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Most Mellotrons use strips of tape. I say "most" because
Tangerine Dream had a specially modified M400 where they removed the frame
and welded the tape rollers from the frame to the underside of the keyboard
area. This allowed Edgar Froese to wrap his tape strips around into a
loop so they would play continuously. However there was a thump when
the tape splice came around, which effects were used to hide. Let's
call this myth BUSTED but known to happen in one special case. |
| Mellotrons are often used for animals. Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Mellotrons have been found in various states over the years. The
Mellotron owned by Spring, an early 70s prog outfit, found its way into a
barn and was lived in by chickens for years. Believe it or not,
Streetly was able to restore the machine to working order. My own
#1037 had some motor trouble
and was retired to a basement for a decade where scores of mice took it
over. It, too, is in working order now. Myth CONFIRMED, and I'll
be glad to send you a Hoover full of mice-rice to prove it.
Equally as disgusting: Although unconfirmed, one source said that Bobby
Goldsboro's Mellotron was used by his ex-wife as a diaper hamper--apparently
it was a messy divorce in more ways than one. |
| Mellotrons are often used by animals. Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
You decide. :-)
Click here
for a 476KB Windows Media file. |
| The new style Mellotron tape frame from Mellotron
Archives will not fit into M400-style machines or a Mark V. Plausible? Confirmed?
...or BUSTED!
So you have a Mark V and would like to order a tape frame from Mellotron
Archives. Or you have an old M400 series machine. But everyone says that the tape frame won't fit.
'Tronbusters busts the myth. COMING SOON. |
| Mellotrons are unreliable and prone to breaking down.
Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Several things have given Mellotrons a bad name:
- Horror shows due to cycling issues in the Mark I/II and M300 series
machines. Cycling mechanisms are complex, and, yes, they break down
sometimes and result in "spaghettification".
- The CMC-10 motor controllers in the M400 units were horrible at
keeping pitch and introduced noise into the audio path.
- Need for maintenance and adjustment.
The truth is that anything mechanical needs looking after. If your
car doesn't get its regular maintenance, what eventually happens? The Mellotron was no more prone to breaking down than anything else, but it did
require some fiddling now and then to get it right. You didn't tour
with a Mark I/II or M300. If you did, you got what you got. For
the M400 you replaced the CMC board and took care of the regular
adjustments.
Mellotrons have been around since the early 60s. The remaining
cycling machines, when restored by competent techs, will last another
several decades. The M400s are still humming along, and replacement
parts are available. They're simpler boxes better suited for touring.
Duncan Goddard of Radio Massacre International regularly plays and tours
with his M400. Click
here for
Duncan's thoughts on Mellotron reliability. You might be surprised.
I'll mark this one as PLAUSIBLE, but realize there are things you can do
to increase reliability! |
| Emerson, Lake, and Palmer never used a Mellotron.
Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Unconfirmed: Stories have it that Emo had one and got ready to use it on stage, and it broke down nearly
right away. ELP never touched it again. So I understand that they did
have one,
but they didn't have a very good experience with it... So much for
reliability. :-) (Well, it was an old CMC-10 motor controller...feh!) |
| Rick Wakeman preferred his Mellotrons well done.
Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Apparently in a BBC interview in 1998 Mr. Wakeman admitted to taking the
two Mellotrons he'd used for years and in a fit of (undoubtedly drunken)
frustration brought them out to a field, poured gasoline on them, and had a
bonfire. Call this one CONFIRMED.
Meanwhile Rick's double-'tron---essentially two M400s on a homemade frame
in a homemade case---has been saved from the dump and has been (or is being)
restored. Last I saw it the thing was an electrical nightmare, but I
guess that is being worked out (or has been by now). It's owned now by
Mellotronist Chris Dale. |
| You can't get parts or tapes for Mellotrons.
Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Streetly has brand new
motors, tape frames, and tapes, and they will be building new machines (if
they aren't already). Mellotron
Archives has all manner of Mellotron parts and tapes, and they have
been making machines for several years now. This myth is BUSTED! |
| The Mellotron tape selection is limited.
Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Mellotron Archives has remastered its tapes of the familiar 'tron sounds
and can get you a set no problem. Streetly has a large collection of
Mellotron sounds including newly recorded sounds. BUSTED! |
| Mellotron samples are the same as the real thing.
Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
You can argue all day long whether samples of a Mellotron sound like the
real thing or not, or whether you'd notice, or whatever. The truth is
the electronics and mechanics of the Mellotron affect the sound, something
that's not going to happen in a sampler. A chord in a Mellotron, for
example, will have sound playing from several tape heads wired in series and
run through a preamp. The result is a slightly distorted, compressed
sound. A sampler combines digital data. The Mellotron's tape
path mechanicals also affect how the instrument is played and how the tapes
sound, adding in bits of wobblies or pitch variance. This won't happen
in a sampler. |
| Because they were hand made, every Mellotron is
different. Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
CONFIRMED after playing many of these. Each Mellotron has its own
feel and playability. #805 is a bit tough to play, has some squeaky
notes, and can be a bear in humid weather. #1037 is a smoother
machine. The Mark I/II/M300 series machines have their keyboards tied
directly to the tape transport chassis, and the keyboards feel a little more
Hammond-like and are easier to play than the M400's removable keyboards.
Some Mellotrons want to be played fast, some not. The playability
depends a lot on who did the key adjustment. I adjust things to be
light, others prefer the "standard" Mellotron key adjustments. And, of
course, you can have the staggered pressure pad adjustment screw placement
modification done to your machine if you wish. I know of one case
where someone purchased a refurbished machine and one straight from a
studio, and although both played fine, he kept the studio one because he
felt it played better. These things are all over the place. |
| The Mellotron FX Console was used for sound effects in
the BBC series "Dr. Who". Plausible? Confirmed? ...or
BUSTED!
Most reports call this one BUSTED. The Beeb had several FX Consoles
(painted in battleship gray), but these were supposedly not used to create
the sound effects for "Dr. Who".
Other resources, of course, say the Mark II FX Console was certainly used
by the BBC for the "Dr. Who" sound effects.
Unconfirmed. |
| There's nobody who can fix Mellotrons anymore.
Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
Let's see...In the eastern US alone you have one guy who can do the
basics (that would be me :-) ), one guy who can do that and refinishing work
(Frank Stickle), the Streetly East Coast Rep (Jimmy "Moto" Moore), and one
guy who can rebuild any Mellotron you throw at him (Mellotron Professor
Jerry Korb). There's a Streetly rep on the US west coast, too, who can
repair machines. In Europe Markus of Mellotron Archives can set you
right, and Streetly always has a line of machines in for refurbishing at
their UK location.
If you visit the
Mellotronists
YahooGroup, you'll find someone who can help.
This myth is totally BUSTED. |
| EMI-made Mellotron M400s were inferior to their Streetly-made
counterparts. Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
British corporation EMI ordered some Mellotron M400 guts from the
Streetly factory and assembled them into cases of their own design.
Often the cases were painted white, which is a shame, as the wood has a nice
mahogany finish, so the EMI machines that weren't painted are really
stunning.
Mechanically, though, well...OK, EMI didn't have all the squaring jigs
and didn't have any experience building these. Martin at Streetly told
me the motors used were suspect as well. So EMI machines are prone to
being very hard to adjust, and never seem to play right. The only way
to fix them, according to the experts, is to rebuild them---take them to
pieces, square everything up, and reassemble. Then they're right as
rain.
You may want to see my experience
with one as well as
Norm Leete's EMI
machine.
Unfortunately this is CONFIRMED. |
| "Sound Sales" Mellotron modifications are vast
improvements on the Mellotron M400. Plausible? Confirmed?
...or BUSTED!
TOTALLY BUSTED! Sound sales bodges...uhhh, modifications...include:
 | SMS3 motor controller (this was the only GOOD thing they did,
replacing the CMC-10) |
| Rollers under the keyboard to hold the head block down (unnecessary;
made track selection harder, pushed the keyboard up) |
| Changed the way the tape take up box was mounted---made it fixed
instead of floating. This was probably done for those people who
toured a lot in an attempt to keep the take up box from shifting.
Probably not necessary, as the take up box is tied at the bottom, and the
wedges originally there could be used to adjust the take up box a little. |
| Bending the pressure pads to get the best sound possible. This
really screwed the machine. Pressure pads should be straight.
There are ways to adjust pressure pads, and the tape head azimuth is
adjustable, too. You don't need to destroy the playability of the
machine to do it! |
With the exception of the CMC-10 replacement these modifications are not
necessary and an be harmful. |
| You can't mix tracks on new tapes, as there is too much
of a gap between the A/B and B/C tracks. Plausible? Confirmed?
...or BUSTED!
The original tape cutting machine, the Mothertron, was made years ago
when tape heads weren't as precise as they are today. Therefore the
tracks were a bit wider and had a bit of bleed, meaning you could mix
adjacent tape tracks on the Mellotron without much loss in volume.
Tapes produced after the Mothertron was retired to a museum had a bit of
a gap between adjacent tracks, so the mixing of adjacent tracks was not as
full as in older tapes. This gap is especially troublesome in the Mark
I/II/M300 series of machines. The Mark I/II track selection is very
much like an old radio, and it's hard to adjust. The M300 is
electronic. (For comparison, the M400 has a manual track select with
detents that wear over time, meaning you can put the tape heads almost
anywhere you want on the tapes.)
Starting around 2003 Mellotron Archives created a machine capable of
producing tapes similar to the old style, so mixing is again possible.
In 2005 Streetly has done the same. Therefore it will be easier to mix
adjacent tracks from now on.
This myth is CONFIRMED for tape sets made from the 80s through the early
2000s. Is is now BUSTED. |
| An engine hoist is recommended when working on a
Mellotron. Plausible? Confirmed? ...or BUSTED!
I believe you have your answer.
Photo - Jerry Korb, working on Mellotron Mark II
#210...Click here for more... |
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