Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Hi there everybody!

Just got back from some days at the Gothenburg film festival. Really
interesting programme this year btw.....

I think Don has ended the subject of refunds rather appropriately, I have
nothing further to add to his mail.

I am also glad that he lost his undeserved Mussolini cap, had that happened
earlier, off topic posting on this list could've been less.

For my unintentional posting to a private mailbox: My million apologies for
being a klutz with the Email program. I cannot express my sincere regrets
for making such a very serious mistake, albeit unintentional. I grovel in
the dirt.....

Concerning John's post:

All I know is: The British tape library (with the tape making masters) was
sold to DK around 1991 together with a number of Mellotrons that were
refurbished by Leslie and John. After that tapes were delivered by DK. Dave
also kept Mellotron enthusiasts informed through his newsletters and the
articles in Keyboard Magazine that helped start the revival of the
Mellotron.
Dave was in 1993 looking desperately for someone to make new SMS's since he
was running out of SMS3's. I was the only one back then to make and deliver
them. Several years later Martin called me concerning buying some SMS4
boards, but no order was placed. Dave was around 1994 trying to get new tape
frames made. I agreed to help, since there was no one else around (at that
time) to do the job.

Concerning shoddy machines: Since you didn't tell who the other machine
belongs to, it's a bit hard to defend myself here. Since all machines
(except the Oasis one, as described in earlier mails) were adjusted to
optimum performance, something must've happened to that particular machine.
All early machines left my workshop in the same state as the "shoddy"
machine used on A-HA's record.

Concerning the stiffnes of felt: No one of the customers has complained
about this so far, so I don't consider it being a problem. I originally got
two samples of felt from the keyboard manufacturer, one soft, one hard. The
soft one was closest to the original felt, so I told them to use that one.
What happens? They use a different, even softer one. Sigh. When trying it
out with several vintage keyboard players here in Stockholm there were no
problems, so I decided to go ahead and use the keyboards as delivered.
So the first 20 manufactured have a somewhat softer felt than I originally
intended. After that the felt is stiffer.

The main problem that Mark Linkous had with the 400's he tried was that they
were going out of tune (drifting), and that the motor speed was sinking when
playing chords: Typical problems of the motor control (CMC10) originally
mounted in most 400:s. The problems with the CMC10 were built in most 400's
from the start.

I'd also like to point out the following: I have never said a negative word
about the job that is done JB and MS today. I have never tried to poke into
any suspected technical or delivery delays with their new tape frames,
although there's been a few indications about this on the list. Therefore I
feel that there is no need for self promotion from JB and MS as answers to
my mails. All I have to do constantly (like DK before me) is to defend
myself (and Dave) against accusations of all kind - my self-promotion is an
off-shoot to that, and would have not been posted unless I'd been attacked.

If you've managed to read this far, here's an answer to the ABBA questions a
while back. I've been having Benny Andersson's white 400 Mellotron (no 748)
here for service during the last few weeks, and managed to fix some things.
It was in a horrible state, one bearing was all bad and of course it had a
CMC 10. The keyboard is very fine though and the cabinet is of the "lighter"
type. Polar's keyboard tech had some interesting things to say about
delivery times and service support in the old days, but let's not get into
that discussion at this point...... I'm sure I will be able to get it into
working condition as I've done with several Swedish 400s before. The machine
has been at Polar all the time, in later years (80's and onward) stowed away
most of the time.

As for the compliment on my English from JB: Thanks, your English is pretty
good too :)

All the best

Markus