Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists

Hi Guys

Was looking through some of my old Beat Instrumental magazines the
other day, came across a keyboard survey in the March 1976 issue.
Thought you might be interested to see what they said about the Tron:

"For some time now one of the most fascinating and controversial
instruments in rock music has been the Mellotron. Over the years the
instrument has been developed until now, eleven years after the first
Mellotron was produced, the instrument has reached the stage whereby
it incorporates two keyboards and a multitude of effects.
The new Mellotron Mk5 is one of the most sophisticated instruments
available at the present time. It has two independant Keyboards of 2
3/4 octaves, giving a total of 5 1/2 octaves altogether. The
electronics allow for each keyboard to have its own system of volume,
tone, reverberation and cross mixing on a stereophonic format. There
is also a dual footpedal which not only allows control of volume for
each keyboard but also when the panning controls are set in a certain
position, can effectively alter the audio image. The reverberation
facility will give full stereo reverberation, controls are provided
to alter reverberation time on each keyboard.
Especially designed for the Mark 5 is the new SMS 2 Servo motor
system which is absolutely silent and will give stable pitch over a
temperature range of 10°C to 55°C. The pitch also remains stable if
set at 240 volts, over a voltage range of 180 volts to 260 volts.
Another amazing feature of the Mellotron is it's ability to
incorporate any tape whatsoever into it's workings. In other words,
the owner of a Mellotron Mk 5 can programme it with virtually
anything he wants, from tapes of his own voice to sound effects and
string sounds. Among famous names who own the Mellotron are Patrick
Moraz of Yes and Paul McCartney. Besides the Mk 5 Mellotronics have
recently introduced the 400 SM which is basically a new version of
the 400s and has many of the facilities of the sophisticated Mk 5."

(Scanned and OCR'd straight off thepage, so all typos and errors
unchanged!)

Steve.