Mellotronists

So, my ebay skills have apparently slipped.  I bid on this with about 30 
seconds left to go  (crazy money, too - or at least I thought so) and 
had it in the bag until someone that was crazier knocked me out at about 
10 seconds - and the real bitch is when you come in second on ebay, that 
means you lost your Tron by $50.

I inspected the machine on Saturday and even though it was my first time 
to touch a Mellotron, I was both in love and underwhelmed at the same 
time.  Underwhelmed because of the condition the machine was in - the 
seller told me he'd had it for 12 years and had done no maintenance on 
it - and it showed.  Now I know what you guys mean when you say 
wobblies.  Every note on the keyboard was slipping, though I'm pretty 
sure this was easily fixable with the pinch roller/pressure pad keyboard 
adjustment - and even though it had an SMS3 card installed (thanks for 
the ID on that, Martin), it still seemed that I could hear the pitch 
drop when I held down 4 or 5 keys (maybe it was just all the tapes 
conspiring to slip at once).  There were also some odd popping and 
(faint) zinging sounds at the lower end of the keyboard that seemed to 
correspond with the tapes returning to their start position - there also 
seemed to be some friction issue with the tape guides in the frame or in 
the springs, as not all the tapes would go all the way back to their 
start position. 

I was in love with it because despite all the problems, when the notes 
would play, the magic sound was there, especially in the shimmer of the 
Three Violins. Even though the SMS3 was present, there were no other 
signs of the Sound Sales bodge.  The take up box had the brackets on the 
bottom and the wood shims on the sides, no misplaced pinch rollers, the 
pad arms seemed to be unbent, and there was no sticker on the power 
supply. I knew I could fix it up and give it a good home, and I owe that 
to all of you that freely share information on this list and elsewhere.  
Because of that information, Martin's patient replies to what must be 
elementary questions, and Ken Leonard's documentation of Perfessor 
Korb's work in the Moneypits, I was able to walk into the studio, and 
disassemble the machine in such a manner (yes, and put it back together, 
too) that the guys that worked there thought I was some kind of 
Mellotron expert (though I guess it really reflects on their own lack of 
knowledge).  One fellow even asked me how I knew so much about them.  I 
didn't want to lie, but there was no way in hell I was going to admit to 
learning everything off the internets, so my reply was "I, uh, well I 
know some guys that are experts on these".

I had my heart set on this machine, really thought I had it, but now I'm 
left thinking that there's got to be a better way than ebay to get one 
of these.

john barrick