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Hi all,Newbie member here. I was wondering how long the Chamberlinwas made? How many? I seem to recall seeing an ad for themin Keyboard magazine in the late 70's (or early 80's.)Any and all info would be appreciated. Thanks!Cheers,DouglasTexas
Hi Douglas,
Welcome aboard.
The numbers on Chamberlins are approximate as accurate recordsapparently don't exist. The first Chamberlins were the single track 100and 200 from the late '40s and early '50s, made in Harry Chamberlin'sgarage in Upland Calif. I believe we have (or had) one or more listmembers with one of these. Around 100 of these may have been made.
The Musicmaster series from the early '60s was the breakthrough thatadded multiple tracks, the rotating drum station selection mechanism,and dual keyboards with rhythm and lead sounds. See KenLeonard's site for photos of one of these. This design was theinspiration and model for the original Mellotron Mark I and II. Thegreat story of how the California design became the much more wellknown Mellotron in the UK is chronicled at various places.
The ad you refer to was probably for the M series which came out inabout 1970, the same time as the Mellotron M400. Again Chamberlinintroduced a new idea. These used a motor driven rewind mechanism thateliminated the need for the long spring based pulley mechanism of theearlier machines. The M-1 was much smaller and could sit on a smalltable. It used two-channel tape heads and 8 tracks. You could get 14combinations of sounds from one set of tapes.
Chamberlin patented many of his original ideas. For a fascinating lookinto the insides, the patents with their drawings are available as PDFsat the EuropeanPatent Office. (Patented of course in the US, but the USPTO siteneeds some silly plug-in to see the scans.)
Harry Chamberlin's Patents:
100 and 200 series: 2940351 and 2910298
Musicmaster series: 3250847 and 3272907
Rhythmate drum machine: 3278188
M series machines: 3567840
Put "US" in front of these numbers and put them in to the "View aPatent Application" box at the link above.
The mellotron.com site has atable of the complete history of Chamberlin manufacturing. Go toArchives -> Chamberlin History.
Btw, I am not an expert on any of this, just someone who is fascinatedby it all. There are real experts here, maybe we can get one or more ofthem to expound :-)
Bob S.