Mellotronists

--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, Mark Pring 
<mellotronmadness@...> wrote:
>
> Well I was just coming rounding to thinking of planning to buy a 
Mark VI until these posts starting appearing, how many hours a week 
do you have to spend keeping these things going? My electronic and 
engineering skills are pretty limited and Streetly's are 12000 miles 
away, I think I'll stick to samples for now.
> 
> Mark
> 
>  Send instant messages to your online friends 
http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
>




RE: Hopefully I can speak for the majority of the owners who own 
RELIABLE units  whatever the model.  First if you read the posts of 
unit problems/ mishaps that appear on this site, consider this: the 
reason for posting problems or remedies on this site is to try to 
find a solution.  Do people post messages when everything goes well? 
These instruments have gotten a bad rap over the years and for the 
most part by those who do not understand or take the effort to know 
the workings of these units, with the exception of units that were 
inferior from the start, like the EMI on ebay, again repairable.
Second, there are enough people on this site with the knowledge to 
solve almost any problem and there are enough tech tips available 
that you should be able to assemble one from the ground up 
blindfolded. 
I also fell for the hype somewhat until I bit the bullet and took it 
out in a live situation and guess what? with all the shortcomings of 
30 years of aging it still went the distance with no mishaps and now 
that it is refurbished, it behaves so much better.  Took it out in 
50 degree weather last week and had no adjusting to do after warm-
up.  Refer to the MONEYPIT article of June 2006 to see before and 
after, real "basket cases" that are back to life and making 
themselves useful again.
As for the poor fella's mishap with the audio board, it was'nt the 
fault of the machine as an honest mistake.
 It is hard to draw a total picture here unless you have one in 
front of you but please do not be intimidated into believing these 
are unreliable, they are not, and if you ask anyone here who has 
done their homework on these units, they will I'm sure agree.  And 
if you are planning on a Mk VI  then all the shortcomings of it's 
predecessor have been addressed.  Hope this changes your outlook.  --
---Doug