In a message dated 10/24/2008 9:13:26 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, tomdcour@amnh.org writes:
I’m not saying I want this to be the case , I’m just wondering why it isn’t so. $5800 IS a lot of money considering that the machine will need a couple of thousand to bring it up to optimum playing order but it didn’t look that bad. TD
Because there's a lot more to fixing that machine than meets the eye. Straightening warped keys is a bitch. It takes a lot of time. I've spent months working on a keyboard (spare time of course) because every key is different from the next and no two keyboards are exactly alike.
Also, fewer people desire Mellotrons than Fender guitars. Few people even know what one is.
Lastly, sprucing up a Fender is a lot easier than fixing up a Mellotron. I can tell you from experience that you can sink a ton of hours into one to get it right.
Frank