Mellotronists

Here's my 2 cents worth(with rebate). It all comes down to what the 
individual percieves as acceptable. I cannot think of anyone who has 
the real thing that wants a memotron, of course there will be 
exceptions.  The other side of the coin is that competition is healthy 
and because of that may inspire those to eventually get the real thing.
To Tron owners, it translates to good investments.  Had it not been 
for Streetly and Kean keeping things going, we would be in the same 
resale category as  say a Mirage, with tapes you could read a 
newspaper through.  Another point you don't hear mentioned much, name 
another keyboard of that era that you can still get any part for. 
In all fairness, the average audience could not tell the real thing 
from a sample, yet they can identify the sound. Last Sat, had the 400 
out playing.  The regular keyboard player could not make it and 
brought a substitute. During the first break he wanted to know what 
the white "organ" was.  So he got the mini-tour.  Then he says, 
seriously, "I have those sounds in my computer at home, did you record 
those from your computer?"  Now this guy has been playing for over 25 
years. (possibly a polka band) 
It is easy for us to be judgemental, and most of us think of the 
clones as mostly garbage, infecting the sanctity of our realm, but in 
reality the Mellotron is sitting pretty at this time and I believe it 
is more identifiable now than it was 30 years ago.     Doug