Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Hello all!
This is going to be the biggest long-shot ever. Back in the nineties I bought a
400 from a home-studio owner for $200.00. After a small amount of work
(unsupervised, as I may have been one of only a couple of 'tron owners in Boston at
the time) it turned out to be a gem. Mind you, this is from my current knowledge of
how bad things can get. As my first experience with a tron, it was beautiful. Stable
and reliable, with strong tapes.
Of course, (we all have tone or two of these stories) I had to sell it for finacial
reasons. It was sampled and sold to a tiny vintage music shop off Newbury street
for $1500. That would have been around 1994/5. The boutique, which dealt mainly
very rare, obscure, pricy instruments and audio gear, closed within a year or two of
my sale to them.
I don't know the serial #, unfortunately, but I can tell you a few distinguishing
features. It was very clean, had black ball-style wheels on the feet (something I
added for obvious conveniences) and would have had a couple vintage coins lodged
under the power supply, probably a wheat-back penny and a nickle. The sounds
were original (as there weren't replacements available at the time, I think), MK2
brass, 3 violins, and flute, and it had a volume pedal. The tapes would have had the
start points shifted ever so slightly on the racks (something I had done to adjust a
rather sloppy attack, good or bad, it seemed to work). I recall that the capstan felt
was green. And that's all I got.
If any of this sounds like your unit, please let me know, as I would love to know
that it lives happily ever after, somewhere.

-Jack Younger
E4/103S "The Bastard"