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Arrival
Before
Moraz Mark V
QTron Work
Reveals - Almost
Mark V Reveal
QTron Reveal
Electromechanicals
QTron Departure
Ranch and Health Spa
Departure

BEFORE

In an ironic twist, we've got two Mellotrons at the Mellotron Ranch, each one owned in the past by a different former keyboard player for the Moody Blues!  These machines are now in the hands of new owners, but they managed to migrate temporarily to the wilds of Vermont to be pampered and cared for by the Mellotron Professor.

This was to be a dual-reveal, one "real", one "virtual".  So let's take a look at the two machines "before" the work was done.

bulletMellotron Mark II #210 was owned by Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues.  The machine was in near original condition, likely being for recording only or simply never brought out on the road.  It found its way to Jimmy Herbst in Florida, and from him it was purchased by Jon Lupfer at QDivision Recording Studios more than a decade ago.  After the machine sat for a while, Jon decided it was time to get it fixed up, so the Mellotron Professor and Your Webmaster visited QDivision to check out the machine.  A crazy, windy weekend saw the Mark II trundled to Vermont for a restoration.


Click for larger images

Although the cabinet was pretty good, the Mark II's electronics weren't in great shape.

* Click above to see the pictures of the insides.  Do you see all the extra wires strung all over the place?  Yep, we've seen that before.  It's an attempt to quiet the noise in the Mellotron by grounding it all over the place.  The cause of that turns out to be miswired head blocks for the most part, but there are other things in the Mark I/II series Mellotrons that can be modified to decrease the noise.  Given that this machine is to be used in a recording studio, a great deal of effort was put into making this machine as quiet as possible.

* When Jerry powered up the machine for the first time, all the magic blue smoke came out of one of the amplifiers.  oops...

* There was a variety of other issues (like cycling---or lack thereof) plaguing the machine.

 

 

bulletMellotron Mark V #5/104 was owned by Patrick Moraz of the Moody Blues.  The machine was heavily modified by Patrick and his crew.  The most distinct change was an entirely new cabinet roughly 11" higher (and a lot heavier) than the original Tolex-covered cabinet.  An MXR Phase 90 guitar effect was added as was an input for a ring modulator (although there was no ring modulator circuitry in the machine).  Ben Vehorn (pictured below) purchased this machine and sent it along to Jerry to be straightened out mechanically and electronically so it could be sold.  It is now owned by Jon Salley in Kansas, USA.

 
 
Click for larger images...

It was decided that #5/104 would have its electronics restored to Mark V specification and it would have a general mechanical check-out to make sure it was working OK.  The custom cabinet, though, would stay as-is.

 

So that was Jerry's assignment over the spring/summer 2006---to get these two beasties into shape.

Let's see how it was done, starting with the Morazotron...-->

 

MONEYPIT FLASHBACK...


Lee Richards and his '69 VW, happily reunited at his new home in Hawaii.
You'll remember Lee's Mellotron M400 #541 from
the
February '06 MONEYPIT report