Hi Chris,
I had not heard about this second Birotron Dave Kean got.
Dave Kean led me to believe that he never had been able to get a Birotron and that my
giving him David Biro's phone number helped him get his first Birotron. He led me to
believe that he got it from Dave Biro. I do believe this was before 1991, but I could be
wrong. I did live thru the '60 & '70's ;-)
It could have been a second Birotron since I started working for E-mu Systems around
1988 thru the 1990's the same time period of when you stated he got this other Birotron,
from Mike Ayoub in Detroit around 1991.
On the other hand, It could be the same unit. I was only going by what Dave Kean said to
me.
It's entirely possible that Dave Biro connected him with Mike Ayoub and that's really where
he got the unit he told me he got "from Dave Biro".
Or as you suggest, there could have been two that Dave Kean had gotten hold of.
I guess only Dave Kean or Dave Biro would have the real story. I have not talked to either
of the "Dave's" in quite a long time.
You do bring up an interesting point though..maybe Rick Wakeman's estimate of 35 being
produced versus Dave Biro's 13 produced, is a clue that there are probably more Birotrons
out there than we think.
As I said, I'm 52 and this stuff happened to me 30 years ago. I do have my senior
moments as well ;-) I'd be curious to know if Dave Kean did did actually get two.
I can call Ed Cohen and see what his take on all this is. He may or may not know anything
about Dave Kean, but he could have more info on the Birotron(s) that Dave Biro did have.
John
--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, <chris.dale@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> > >Hi John/Bernie/all:
>
>
>
> If this is accurate then it's the second Birotron Dave Kean purchased.
>
> Dave got his first Birotron in 1991 from a fellow named Mike Ayoub who lived in
Detroit,Michigan. Mike offered the Birotron to Dave after helping him find his first
mellotron 400.
>
> In 1990 I purchased a Minimoog from Mike and at that time he also offered to sell me
Rick Wakeman's double mellotron (proto MkV), this same Birotron, a Mander pipe organ, a
BX3, as well as the guts from the B3 that was at Woodstock 69.
>
> I turned these items down as the Minimoog was all I wanted at the time.
>
> These items were also in various states of disrepair, and the Birotron was missing
tapes / semi functional at best. When I called him later for some advice in tuning the
Minimoog he mentioned the Birotron had been sold it to Dave. This is the unit that
appears in his "Workings" video.
>
> I guess the point is that it suggests there are probably more Birotrons out there.
According to Wakeman 35 were made, whether they were fully functional or not is another
story.
>
>
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > >
> >
> > Many years later I told this story to David Kean, (who I had
> contacted when I was having
> > problems with my Mellotron Mark V. I finally met David Kean when
> I worked for E-mu
> > Systems (Emu had a "after trade show" party at Dave Kean's studio
> when it was in North
> > Hollywood, CA one year) and he had expressed an interest in
> getting his hands on a
> > Birotron. I told him that I did at one time have David Biro's
> phone number so I looked and
> > found a very old phone book of mine that had David Biro's Mom's
> home phone number in
> > CT. At the time David Biro still lived there with his Mom. Turns
> out that Dave Biro did
> > have a Birotron still in his possession. Dave Kean then called
> and thanked me. He told me
> > later that he bought David Biro's personal Birotron from him. Not
> sure what he paid for it.
> >
> > Ironically, I heard from Ed Cohen over the past year and he
> mentioned that Dave Biro is
> > living in Florida last he heard.
> > Thru my relationship with Ed Cohen I eventually got to meet Rick
> Wakeman and Keith
> > Emerson.
> > I ended up demonstrating the Polyfusion Modular Synthesizers to
> both of them. Keith
> > Emerson basically said, "he's never going to use anything other
> than Moog synths, due the
> > relationship he had with Bob Moog. We took my entire Polyfusion
> Synth in multiple
> > cabinets to Rick Wakeman's hotel room in New York, and he loved it
> so much he ordered a
> > larger system based on what was in my personal system.
> > The problem was that Rick never paid for or took delivery of the
> system after they custom
> > built it for him. Talk about feeling stupid to the owners of
> Polyfusion.
> >
> >
> > Sorry for the length of the post and the off topics bit at the end
> regarding synthesizers
> >
> > John
> >
>