Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists
Subject: EMI Tape Stock
From: kenmerb@...
Date: 2002-11-08
FWIW
Much of what I'm talking about below has been documented on my web site, with photos.
It's been a few years now since I purchased my first M400. #1217 had spent it's prior life in a recording studio in Nashville, and it came to me with a vintage 1970s tape set. I later found out this "BBS" (I think it stands for Bradley Standard) set contained EMI 515 / 516 tape stock.
Anyway, this tape set has always played like a dream. No adjustments needed, tapes always snapped right back, sounded great. Then I started purchasing some new tape sets. I bought a set on the pink BASF tape stock, and after a week or so, the tapes would get stuck in the tape box. Martin, standing behind his work, made a new set from the yellow BASF stock and sent it to me (at no charge). Well, this got stuck also, although not as often as the pink stuff. Martin again re-recorded my set onto some other tape stock (no charge again), and this worked. It didn't get stuck at all. However, none of the sets ever played as well as my original BBS set. Ken Leonard will verify this. Between us we have at least 8 tape frames, and the BBS set stands out as the best. My other sets all require adjustment after they go into the machine, where the BBS set is always "wobbly free" and ready to go. Martin (or maybe it was Jerry Korb) dubbed my house the "Merbler Triangle" because of the problems I had experienced along the way, but I always suspected that the tape stock was behind most of the problems.
I didn't want to make a big issue about it, because I found out that this "BBS" tape stock was no longer available, so what's the point? When JB brought up the issue in Toronto last year, this confirmed my own findings. He essentially said that Mellotrons hate modern tape, that today's tape doesn't drive as well through a Mellotron because of the modern tape formulation (how it's made). He said that if he had a time machine, he would go back thirty years or so and get as much of the EMI 515 tape that he could get his hands on. So here it was, out in the open, the "dirty little secret" of getting your Mellotron to behave. I have to commend JB for saying this, because at the time he said it, he didn't have access to any of this EMI tape.
Well, a few months ago, Martin informed me that they had found a source for some of the vintage EMI tape (which turned out to be EMI 561 - same thing, different color backing he tells me), and asked if I'd be interested in getting some new sounds for my MKII. My RH keyboard had been giving me fits with wobblies (even MKIIs have problems), and I was eager to replace some of the old, unused sounds on that side with some of his new sounds. This would allow me to "kill two birds with one stone", so I rolled up my pennies (literally - there was $260 there!) and went for it. Long story short, the new tapes sound great and the wobblies are gone. Cleaning the pinch rollers helped, but I'm certain that the tape stock is what made the real difference.
After this, I mentioned to Martin that there are probably a lot of Tron owners out there who would greatly benefit from the new tape stock. I'd bet that switching to this tape stock could fix a multitude of problems which people would normally attribute to bad pinch rollers, adjustments needed, etc. I know that there are some Tron owners out there who have lost interest because of the constant adjustments required in order to play the thing, and I can hear the badly adjusted Trons on some of the recordings I receive from people.
Martin responded the very next day with his half price ∗tape amnesty∗ offer, which apparently was met with a collective yawn from the list. This is actually a pretty good deal. You get to replace your set with the vintage 70's EMI 561 tape stock (i.e., no more wobblies) which is no longer made, any 3 sounds you want, for half price - and you don't even have to go to Toronto or Philly to pick them up this time. I guess the only possible downside to this offer is that you have to give up your existing tape set, but if you are constantly making adjustments like I was, this is the way to go. Oh well, I'm saving up to do the LH side of my MKII. Could take me a while though - I'm out of pennies and Martin couldn't do a half price deal for the MKII tapes :-(
That's OK, just save me some of the good stuff, Martin.
Ken M.