I shall dig some decent piccies out for you. Here's a few from the toyroom
in Birmingham. This particular studio lockup was up 3 flights of stairs.. I
now occupy a room slightly closer to the ground- and right opposite my
workshop door, handily..
The brown thing next to my Mellotron is an early 60's Bird, one of two of
that model in my slightly odd stable of gear.. Everything inside is
beautifully put together- I'll have to take some gynaecological shots, as
the internals are wonderful (especially in the dark when the insides become
a veritable 'city of tiny lights'.. The reverb tank is very much like the
ones in MKII Mellotrons, wooden bodied and using gramophone pickups as
transducers. They all have 2x EL34s in their power amps.
I've a later version too, called a 'Thundabird' (their spelling) which
attempts to compete with the Vox Continental II. It uses the same keyboard
as the Vox and is similarly styled. It's still all-valve (sorry, all-tube)
so the rest of the guts are crammed into a 2x12 amp cabinet. Without which
the organ can't work.. Thankfully the amp/powersupply came with the organ.
It's nearly stable- just needs loads of fresh capacitors and an INTENSE
service. Millions of contacts to clean!
Birds are an absolute pain in the arse to revive, very labour intensive
and cap-hungry. Not as bad as Hammond Novachords, though. (Doesn't stop me
wanting one- did any make it to England back in the 40s?) You have to
replace a lot of stuff just to get the master oscillators back into their
desired tuning ranges. They do sound cool though. Warm and (dare I say it?)
slightly MKII-parpy in a good way.
By the way, the (Germanium) Vox in the pics has 'S.AKA J.Dammers' written
inside the lid. It's 'Special' to me anyway, regardless of (possibly
dubious) provenance. I mention THIS because the only footage I've ever seen
of a Bird in action was of the Specials- Jerry Dammers playing a 'Duplex'
model. All the same guts as the big ones but with the amps and powersupply
located in detachable end pods to which the legs were attached. I'll dig out
some pictures of one that I nearly bought last year. A spectacular looking
machine.
>From: "Brendan Haley" <b.haley@...>
>To: "Mark Wallis" <markstuartwallis@...>
>Subject: Re: Mix 'n' match M400s
>Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 18:06:51 -0400
>
>hey....do you have a picture of the Bird Organ?
>
>That sounds interesting and I have never heard of it.
>
>-brendan
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mark Wallis
> To: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007 5:57 PM
> Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] Mix 'n' match M400s
>
>
> Thanks for replying!
>
> No, I'm afraid I don't know her history. I bought her from Streetly
>(then
> Mellotron Archives UK), beautifully sorted and in virginal white, in
>1997.
> We've had a lot of fun together. Whenever she's needed tweaking I've
>sorted
> her myself. When the power switch arc'ed out I stripped and rebuilt it
>with
> new handmade contacts. It's been fine ever since.
>
> I did mean Hammond, Vox, Bird∗, organs. The idea of selling my kidneys
> hadn't occurred to me.
> However, I don't really drink that much and I DO have two of the slimy
> little fellows...
>
> ..what's the going rate then? Sounds like a plan!
>
> ∗ Sydney S. Bird and sons, long-gone makers of fine electronic organs
>from
> Poole, Dorset, England. Lovely machines using valve oscillators and neon
> dividers. Earlier ones have the most magnificent wooden keyboards and
>look
> great next to Mellotrons. Their Time Will Come..
>
> MSW
>
> >From: jeffc@...
> >To: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
> >Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] Mix 'n' match M400s
> >Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 17:05:04 -0400 (EDT)
> >
> >On Thu, 24 May 2007, Mark Wallis wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Hello all you tronspotters out there,
> > >
> > > This would be my first post, having only recently (belatedly) joined
>the
> > > list..
> >
> >
> >well, it's about damn time! :0)
> >
> >
> > > I own M400 no 151. Oddly enough, her front and rear panels bear the
> >number
> > > 160. Does anybody out there own no 160 and what numbers are on HER
>front
> >and
> > > rear panels?
> >
> >
> >wow - that's one of the oldest serial-number-wise i can think of!
> >[i have m400 #364 myself, and caretake a couple others (1189 & 1220)]
> >
> >interesting to have mismatched panels like that.
> >are you the original owner?
> >if not, do you know the history?
> >
> >might have belonged to a person or shoppe that got them mixed up,
> >or may have been a salvage job...
> >
> >
> > > Just curious..
> > >
> > > ..and as for the M4000, well.. what a beauty. 'The boys done good'
>as
> > > footballing parlance would have it here. Time to sell my organ
> >collection,
> > > methinks.
> >
> >
> >you get better money selling them off one at a time.
> >although a matched pair of kidneys might draw top dollar.
> >
> >wait... did you mean organ as in hammond, farfisa, vox...
> >or like kidney, liver, eyeballs... ?
> >
> >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Mark
> > >
> > > __________________________________________________________
> > > Txt a lot? Get Messenger FREE on your mobile.
> > > https://livemessenger.mobile.uk.msn.com/
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Yahoo! Groups Links
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
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