Mellotronists

In a message dated 12/5/2006 5:37:54 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
capt_carbonarc@... writes:

I just  heard these guys on XM. Went to the website, listened to the
samples. My  first thought was "It's YES meets Genesis meets Styx
meets Rush meets ELP  meets Alan Parsons Project meets......Focus!mee
Plus Rennaisance and  Marrillion!" Thoughts? Musings? Flames?



I've met them and some of those guys were A class Assholes. Especially  their 
stage manager. I'll Never forget him telling me that he once had a  Mellotron 
but the tapes kept slipping so he "sandblasted his shaft,*" in  which he 
claims that he actually sandblasted the capstan. I guess his tapes  didn't last 
long. He was astonished at how good the Trons I supplied  to Anglagard sounded. 
Glass Hammer had bought along a set of barely working  Taurus pedals. They 
couldn't get them to work for their show, but they  agreed to lend them to 
Anglagard for their show. My son and I worked on them for  hours and highly modified 
them(photo available upon request). They worked  flawlessly for Johan during 
the Anglagard show and then died... never to  work again. SAD! Mattias, I'm 
sure, can confirm this story, as during that  period, I also repaired his 
accordion and his Chamberlin Rhythmate as well as a  pair of Rhodes pianos.
 
Note:Glass Hammer's guitarist was a hell of a nice guy.
 
*this phrase has now become part of the NEARfest lexicon, as in,"how's your  
shaft?" Which calls for the reply, "recently sandblasted, thanks." Most 
amusing  is that this story has made the rounds and we Tronists most enjoy laughing 
about  it.
 
Frank