amen! im getting real sick of ebay, straight up
bazz
--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, john barrick <astroboy@...> wrote:
>
> So, my ebay skills have apparently slipped. I bid on this with
about 30
> seconds left to go (crazy money, too - or at least I thought so) and
> had it in the bag until someone that was crazier knocked me out at
about
> 10 seconds - and the real bitch is when you come in second on ebay,
that
> means you lost your Tron by $50.
>
> I inspected the machine on Saturday and even though it was my first
time
> to touch a Mellotron, I was both in love and underwhelmed at the same
> time. Underwhelmed because of the condition the machine was in - the
> seller told me he'd had it for 12 years and had done no maintenance on
> it - and it showed. Now I know what you guys mean when you say
> wobblies. Every note on the keyboard was slipping, though I'm pretty
> sure this was easily fixable with the pinch roller/pressure pad
keyboard
> adjustment - and even though it had an SMS3 card installed (thanks for
> the ID on that, Martin), it still seemed that I could hear the pitch
> drop when I held down 4 or 5 keys (maybe it was just all the tapes
> conspiring to slip at once). There were also some odd popping and
> (faint) zinging sounds at the lower end of the keyboard that seemed to
> correspond with the tapes returning to their start position - there
also
> seemed to be some friction issue with the tape guides in the frame
or in
> the springs, as not all the tapes would go all the way back to their
> start position.
>
> I was in love with it because despite all the problems, when the notes
> would play, the magic sound was there, especially in the shimmer of the
> Three Violins. Even though the SMS3 was present, there were no other
> signs of the Sound Sales bodge. The take up box had the brackets on
the
> bottom and the wood shims on the sides, no misplaced pinch rollers, the
> pad arms seemed to be unbent, and there was no sticker on the power
> supply. I knew I could fix it up and give it a good home, and I owe
that
> to all of you that freely share information on this list and
elsewhere.
> Because of that information, Martin's patient replies to what must be
> elementary questions, and Ken Leonard's documentation of Perfessor
> Korb's work in the Moneypits, I was able to walk into the studio, and
> disassemble the machine in such a manner (yes, and put it back
together,
> too) that the guys that worked there thought I was some kind of
> Mellotron expert (though I guess it really reflects on their own
lack of
> knowledge). One fellow even asked me how I knew so much about them. I
> didn't want to lie, but there was no way in hell I was going to
admit to
> learning everything off the internets, so my reply was "I, uh, well I
> know some guys that are experts on these".
>
> I had my heart set on this machine, really thought I had it, but now
I'm
> left thinking that there's got to be a better way than ebay to get one
> of these.
>
> john barrick
>