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

RW:

The RMI, I have a lot of equipment stolen, about eight years ago. My RMI was stolen, a lot of it was stolen. I have heard that some of it is in private collections. In the same way I was speaking to Keith Emerson about this last year, who's friend of mine, you know there's certainly a situation where ... almost like people who collect paintings, there are people who collects equipment. I mean, I had a double Mellotron that was made for me. It was stolen many years ago, and just recently a man wrote to me in America, and he just bought it and he wanted me to authenticate it. And it was in a quiet bad condition and he wanted to repair. So I wrote him back and I said: "You know, I'm really glad you've got it. Actually it was stolen. But don't worry, I'm not asking to give back, I don't want it back, but it was stolen from me.

The above is from http://yesmuseum.org/WakeView3.html

So what sort of stuff did you lose?

RW: “I lost about six minimoogs, a couple of Mellotrons, a Fender Rhodes, a huge long list of stuff. And some of it’s resurfaced. One of the Mellotrons, the famous double Mellotron resurfaced. And a guy got hold of it and rebuilt it, and that’s in a museum somewhere in America. And he contacted me to verify that it used to be mine, and I wrote back to him and said, ‘Yeah, it was stolen in nineteen whatever it was.’ And it completely freaked him out. He called up and said, ‘I didn’t steal it.’ And I said, ‘I know you didn’t, ‘because you’re hardly likely to have stolen it and then ring me up.’ And he said, ‘Do you want it back?’ And I said, ‘No, if you’ve rebuilt it, good for you. I’m glad that it’s got a good home, and I’m glad that it’s in a museum.’ So there you go.”

This is from http://www.pertout.com/Wakeman.htm

Somehow he heard of my other things and believes my place is a museum. (I don't recall telling him, but I might have.)

After getting it working, I recorded the the Double Mellotron sounds on DAT tape which over time I gave to him backstage at several YES concerts. I thought it only right that he have his old sounds back as there was some custom stuff that's not available elsewhere. I was able to meet all of YES several times and had them autograph the underside of the lid. I showed them the pics of the almost decade long restoration process and Jon Anderson was quite surprised, uttering the word "AMAZING!!" as he looked them. 

There's a lot more to tell, but I intend to do this on a proper website at some point and not monopolize everyone's time here.

I've attached some before and after pics (the control panel was being examined by YES tech Frank Levi.at the time)

I hope I've answered a few questions.

Chris