Mellotronists

amen! im getting real sick of ebay, straight up

bazz

--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, john barrick <astroboy@...> wrote:
>
> 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
>