Workshop

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Dismantling
Prep Work
Workshop
Departure

THE MELLOTRON WORKSHOP/DEMONSTRATION

SETTING UP

On Saturday evening we arrived at St. Mary's Hamilton Village in Philadelphia to unload all the gear and begin setting up.

In addition to the Skellotron, we had Jimmy's Formicatron, Jeff's M400, and Brad's refurbished Novatron Brad Schuman and friends at his Novatron, which had arrived not too long ago from Streetly (and looking quite stunning).

Jeff and Jerry got things set up Getting set up for The Gatheriings Mellotron Workshop Getting set up for The Gatheriings Mellotron Workshop Getting set up for The Gatheriings Mellotron Workshop, and Jerry put out a wide array of Mellotron artifacts Jerry Korb's Mellotron Artifacts.

 

THE WORKSHOP

The spectators began filing in a little before 8pm.  It is my understanding that about 30 people were there for the evening, and all of them got eyes and ears full of things 'tronic.

Chuck van Zyl, our host for the workshop, got things rolling.

Chuck van Zyl introduces the Mellotron Workshop

Jeff gave an intro, and Jerry Korb stepped up to give a talk about the history of the Mellotron and the company.

Jerry Korb discusses Mellotron History

Ken Leonard shows the workings of the Mellotron M400 Yours Truly then went about describing the workings of the Mellotron, showing bits and pieces of the Skellotron.

 

We then had a few break-out sessions.  Brad, Gino, Jeff, and Jimmy demonstrated the working machines and the various sounds.  Several people went over to talk with Jerry about the bits and pieces of Mellotron archaeology he had sitting on the table.  A bunch of people stayed with me to see if I could get the M400 assembled---and working.  I think they expected smoke to come out.  To be honest, so did I.  :-)

Break-out sessions at the Mellotron Workshop Break-out sessions at the Mellotron Workshop Break-out sessions at the Mellotron Workshop

Soooo...What happened when I got #1037 all back together and turned on the power switch???

Mellotron M400 #1037 Skellotron

It didn't work!  :-)

Well, OK, it spun up, but there was no motor speed control, and the motor was running a little fast.  Still, sound came out, and the folks cheered (Thanks!  :-) ).  This problem appeared when I first assembled the machine several months ago, and it's baa-aaack.  BUT when I got the machine home and assembled everything again on a workbench, it ran fine.  Go figure.  Gremlins, I think.

After that little bit of semi-success, Chuck closed out the evening, and we started breaking down the equipment.  Man, that's a lot of work...

Skellotron #1037 getting packed up

Packing up after the Mellotron Workshop at The Gatherings - December 11, 2004

...but it was a lot of fun!

It was a bit of an effort to get things loaded up, but after about an hour we were on our way. -->