Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists
Subject: There are mellotrons and there are mellotrons
From: tronbros@...
Date: 2003-12-01
Dear All,
You've all been reading about Ken's plight with an EMI. The problems he describes have dogged every EMI we have ever worked on including our own Mr Leete's and Macca's custom pair. They are dogs initially but will work in the long run, once you've broken them down to the component parts, checked and measured everything and then rebuilt them, again checking and measuring as you go. It's daunting and frustrating and we wish Ken well.
NOW, here's some things for you all to do during the dark months of December. Check out your own machine quickly to establish why you have wobblies.
1) Play a note and back off the pad until the note just disappears. Let the tape return and then play the note again. As you do, turn the pad screw clockwise. The note should come in after 1/4 turn. If it takes more than this or the note appears very slowly then the pad is out of adjustment.
2) Play a note and back off the roller until the tape just stops driving. Now let the tape return. Play the note again and screw the roller down until you just reach full speed. The tape should drive after 1/2 turn. If it takes 1 or 2 turns to get up to speed then the roller has problems.
The result of either of these will be wobblies. Too much pad pressure = too much roller pressure to compensate = wobblies.
ALWAYS ADJUST THE PAD FIRST AND THE ROLLER SECOND. The loading has to be known before you can adjust the roller.
Other contributing factors: out of round capstan(you can hear it pulse against the tape storage box felt) and Ampex tape(just apalling).
Best,
Martin
Streetly Electronics - all things MELLOTRONIC - click this link..........
US East Coast Agent: Jimmy Moore - JMoore6397@...