Greetings from Loveland, Colorado-
I'm Bruce Daily, an unemployed electronics tech, a
new tron owner, and an old certified tronhead. No,
the "pocotron" screen name is not that of my tron.
Frustrated by rejections from Yahoo in coming up with
a screen name, I could only think of my parakeet's
name.
Yeah, I bought the M400 #1221 out of Bloomington,
Ind. As I had no eBay account, my sister helped do
the bidding. Believe me, we don't know anything about
the current scam. I am DEFINITELY keeping this tron.
I have been wanting a mellotron ever since I first
played one in 1975. After I played a few notes on
that one, my buddy said that my eyes glazed over -a
sure sign of tron-itis.
The trip out and back was great. Due to rain in
Bloomington when I picked it up, I had little time and
no space to prep the tron for transport, other than
supporting the low end of the tapeframe with folded up
& taped cardboard. In back of my Bronco II I set the
tron on its back on a doubled blanket, and covered it
with another. Duffel bags, a sleeping bag, coats, and
other travel implements kept it fairly secure. I am
sure some of you will cringe at this minimal prep, but
the unit made it back alright (ok, there were some
stretched tape shuttle springs, but these need
replacing anyway).
It plays, but pretty unevenly. Alignment needed.
Lots of good procedures to be found online for this
(thanks, people).
It is a bit dusty inside. Surface paint is rough,
crazed, chipped, yellowed, and has the traditional
cigarette burn on the right cheekblock. Missing a
bolt for one of the little black feet. Makes the tron
look casual after moving it. I doubt I will come
across a BA bolt, so re-tapping is in order.
Some of the pinch rollers need the flick, and oil.
Definitely on the short list.
The first black key needs a springpad, but we all saw
that in the auction photos.
The tapes look original, ('cello, 3 violins & flute),
and are marked "BBS" before the start marks.
Yes, the power switch cover is intact (believe it or
not). The switch works well. No wear or bad solder
on the underside wires, but I stuck some insulating
tape on the metal box under it to help prevent an
immediate short.
The tone control has no effect, but I will work on
this. The volume and pitch controls work well.
The motor controller is a Sound Sales SMS 3
(silkscreened on the bottom) and, yes, it is mounted
wrong, but I will rectify that. Looks like this
controller was replaced or moved, as there are other
mounting holes drilled about an inch lower in the same
pattern. I bet they mounted the new controller,
found out the power supply wouldn't clear upon
re-installation, so they re-mounted it. I doubt this
is a Sound Sales machine, as the spillbox is mounted
properly (bottom supported , wedges present).
Motor is positioned a bit unevenly, but the rubber
shock grommets look a bit worn & need replacing. Any
sources on these?
3 of the tapeheads look like they were replaced.
These have a gold coloring as compared to the rest of
the silver colored ones.
So, the lower tape shuttle springs were in bad shape
to begin with, and worse after the trip. I took a few
loops out of the worst ones, and it helped them return
better. However, I will order a new complete set. A
short keypad spring and tech manual would be nice,
too. I sent a couple of emails to Mr. Kean in the
Great White North, but have had no response in over a
week. Hmm. May have to cross the pond for this one.
A new set of tapes will have to come later, and
(hopefully) another tapeframe of different sounds.
I am guessing that it was made in 1974, based on the
1221 serial #. No dates found inside (no funny
written messages found either (yet)).
New paint finish? In the back of my mind I was
considering something like John Lennon's mid '60s
Roll-Royce. Or, maybe camoflauge? Naaa... white
sounds good.
Anyway, I appreciate the presence of this group, and
have found the other web resources to be useful and a
lot of fun. This is going to be an adventure. Talk
to you later.
-Bruce Daily
____________________________________________________________________________________
Don't pick lemons.
See all the new 2007 cars at Yahoo! Autos.
http://autos.yahoo.com/new_cars.html