..and this was most definitely one of those days.
I got home quickly enough because I had the germ of a musical good idea going on in my head and needed to get it down quickly so I wouldn't lose it. All it would need is piano and Mellotron and that's it. After that I could take it easy.
However.
First the Mellotron was flat on all counts. Tuning it up made no difference. So tune it way up and then back it down. Now it's sharp all round, even when it was wound down beneath where the pitch control was before. Then I get it to approximate with the piano...just about. Then I start. Then I stop. It's flat again. Repeat as above. Great Start again. Now it's about a quarter-tone sharp, despite being where it was on the dial when it was flat before. Then it went flat as I played. Then it was tuned up. Then it went sharp. Notice that at no time did the bastard thing ever pass through correct tuning; it went from Sharpville to Flatborough without even passing anywhere close to what I was after.
Okay..screw this. Try the flutes. Never has there been a worse idea, not even when Archduke Franz Ferdinand said 'to hell with the expense...let's go on holiday to Sarajevo...'. If the strings are bad then the flutes are going to be worse. I mean way worse. I mean it didn't even sound like C#1 was playing the same note any more than once every five minutes.
Walked away. Let it run. Must be a temperature thing. Yes...that's it.
The fuck it was. I came back to find the strings were flat and they were staying that way, always suggesting that they were in tune when in fact they were about as out of tune as those wailing high notes on 'I Will Always Love You' just before the vibrato mercifully kicks in. Repeat as above. Sharp. Then flat. Then sharp and flat. The probably neither. Then musical limbo.
I suspect the M400 was trying to tell me that my germ of a musical good idea was actually garbage.
You'll just never know. Sat down. Played Angry Birds. Forgot.
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Mike Dickson, Edinburgh