Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] tales from orchestrally manoeuvring mellotrons in the dark
From: kinchmusic@...
Date: 2003-05-14
Yeah, I know the music biz is rife with tales of unreliability as far as mellotrons are concerned. For me the low-light of my live 'tron performances had to be the Greenbelt Christian music festival here in the UK. I had a mk2 at the time. If anyone comes across an aluminium blue carpet covered mk2, that's the one. Well, we've all gone for that big monster chord at the beginning of the set from time to time haven't we guys. This machine had been switched on all day to try and keep it stable. The weather was as good as it gets in late August. But what I hadn't taken into account was the massive blaze of light that greeted our first notes. The bloody thing must have dropped in pitch by at least a tone and a half.......! -Niiice!!
Anyway, the point is that the mellotron doesn't have an exclusive licence on unreliability. Other instruments including the aforementioned Emulators, Moogs, etc. all seem to have had their woes from time to time, it's just that you don't seem to hear so much of those.
Andy K
EMI m400 #E4/1405
www.go.to/andykinch