Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Ken,

Though not a 'tron owner yet (#574 is still waiting for me to deliver
it from it's purple roadcase with the degenerating blue foam), those
pops sound like static pops to me. Having worked for years with
larger reel-to-reel machines, it reminds me of when the static drains
on the hub platters of Scully 280's would stop making good ground
contact followed by the static buildup from fast winding a tape
finding it's way to ground resulting in a pop or pops in the dub.
Funny how it never seemed to be able to find a ground while the tape
was motionless, it always waited to discharge after the tape has
been in motion for a moment or two. After several
speaker-cone-shredding snaps, things would settle down while one
rewound the tape to start the dub over again. And again, as soon as
the tape was played back, the pops would re-occur in about the same
places, but once the hub drains were renewed, then the popping
ceased. Were any provisions made for this on the Mark II or was it
calculated that the numerous points of contact the tape makes as it
winds through the 'tron would provide plenty of grounding
opportunities?

Just a thought....

FS. Weller