Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Hello All,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I did something very interesting
with my MKII over the last couple of weeks. I changed the tapes, putting a
new Streetly set into the RH side. This was quite a process, the
Mellotronists equivalent of having a root canal, but everything worked out
fine. Thanks to Martin Smith who recorded the new set and walked me through
the process of replacement with a great deal of patience. Also thanks to Bob
Young, who recently did the same thing on his MKII, and is now ironing out
some "cycling gremlins".

I was extremely ∗careful∗, this being the Merbler Triangle and all.
Even though Bob gave me a heads up on the dangers of the Wharfedale magnet
(which acts as a giant black hole for wayward tapes), I still ran into a
problem. While replacing tape #20 or so, I dropped my all-metal screwdriver
and it quickly attached itself to the RH speaker magnet (through a towel I
had wrapped around the magnet). Thinking nothing of this, I grabbed the
screwdriver and continued changing tapes until (around tape #30) I wondered
if the screwdriver had become magnetized. Much to my horror, it had. But
I'm happy to say, none of my tapes were affected, so all's well. The biggest
challenge about doing one of these seems to be getting the cycling to work
again after replacing the synch (cycling) tape. It's kind of like restarting
the patient's heart after a heart transplant. Mine worked after a while,
Bob's hasn't yet, but Martin's working on it with him.

For those interested, Ken L and I both took digital photos and will
document this process on our web sites for future generations of
Mellotronists to refer to.

The new sounds are EXCELLENT. In one shot, I got 9 new sounds (and kept
9 of the original MKII lead sounds). My new sounds are:

"Watcher" mix (MKII 3-violins & brass)
Half Speed Brass (now available in the Streetly library, Martin tells me)
Ian McDonald Flutes (less breathy than original, seem less noisy, well
played)
Rick Blechta French Horns (well recorded & played - after all, it's Rick)
Ray Jung Fretless Bass (just like a fretless bass)
Tony Levin Electric Cello (like cello, amplified sound characteristics)
Adrian Belew Guitar (nice sustain & controlled feedback)
Steve Hackett Guitar (similar, great guitar sound)
Russian Choir (very strong voices - like 8 voice choir on steroids)

In general, the new sounds seem to be much better recordings. Of course
I still love the classics. Maybe these will become the ∗new classics∗.

This is a cost effective way to get a lot of new sounds in one shot, but
you'll have to work for it ! If you have a MKII, I highly recommend it.
I'll send a link to the photos once they're on the web site.


Ken M
M400 #1217
MKII #247......aahhhhhh...sounding fine!!!