Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: The Mellotron Group

Okay Dave, you asked nicely!

 

Both MKIIs had been stored in a removal company's lockup and were covered head to toe in black, sticky diesel dust.  They were unbelievably rough.  Bearing in mind that these were the first restorations for John and myself and I had no knowledge whatsoever of procedures.  I couldn't even take the keyboards off and so I was given very menial tasks and rightly so.  John stripped them down to the components and built them back up, cleaning everything prior to reassembly.  Not polishing and gleaming, just removing the years of filth.  Luckily the tapes had been cycled to safe positions where the majority was spooled and clean.  Just the hanging loops needed the alcohol treatment.  I think John may have had to strengthen the cabinets but this was in 1990 and a long time ago.  Anyway, they worked and we took the CK MKII down to Real World for the recording of Thrak along with Roberts M400s.  They were in a semi circle in the control room and they worked a treat but got little use sadly.  The Wake of P. MKII has been with us ever since and now needs restoring again along with the M400s.  Sad considering the time and effort and little money earned.  That's not Robert's fault, we just undercharged enormously in those naive days.  It was a hobby and we were working on the Crimso 'trons.  What a fix!

 

Best,

 

Martin