Mellotronists

Dear Team,
I'm gonna post what I sent to Ken yesterday as a matter for the group's
interest:

A little bit of my history with Mark II #123 and M400 #1285....

Q:"Sounds like you owned Dave Keane's MKII (#123 is famous).  I've seen
that played on his"Sounds" video, and it appears to be in great shape
(at least it was when the video wasmade, ten years ago). "

A: The history of MkII #123 for me was as follows: I acquired it in 1975
from a Mr. Art
Polhemus (famous for producing the Blues Magoos' "We Ain't Got Nothing
Yet!") in New York City, where I lived at the time. He had it sitting in
the corner of his studio. The left keyboard cycling was broken. Hence he
thought it was a completely busted tron. The cabinet, however  was in
pristine condition and I kept it that way. He offered it to me for
$1000. Needless to say, I whipped out my checkbook then and there. I got
Studio Instrument Rentals to cart the beastback to my "studio" apartment
on the upper east side. I used the machine to record both athome and at
sessions around town after completely restoring it with the help of
Frank Levi III (Rick Wakeman's tech) and the Bradley's from UK. I still
have their letters of correspondence  and all the paperwork in my
collectors files on this transaction. I recall asking "Sound Sales" to
look at it and they said it couldn't be repaired. Les Bradley told me
that was nonsense and  with his and Frank's help, we got that sucker
back to good as new! After about a year of running around with this
gigantic thing all over town, it became obvious to me that the Mark II
was "not made for walkin'".  The cycling kept going every time I moved
the blessed thing from studio to studio!  (This doesn't even get into
the tape spillage that used to keep me busy for hours rewinding tapes
that fell on the floor of sessions-although they NEVER snapped or
broke!).

Frank approached me (at this point, he was working for DMI thru Night
Owl Music) and offered the following trade: I traded in the Mark II to
Dallas and they gave me a new M400 (#1285) and SIX tape frames of my
choice. Given the value of these things at that time and the fact that I
had only $1000 invested at that point, and given the portability issue,
I grabbed at that deal and took it.

The 400 served me VERY well well into the 1980's when I finally sold
that machine to Frank. The tapes I had for it were custom made in some
cases including  a "Mark II violins / 8 choir / flutes" rack whicvh I
used a lot. I still have the recordings from the Mark II in my
collection. I'll look for them if you like. They include Traffic,
Beatles and Crimson SFX and exist on reel-to-reel 7 1/2IPS format on
plastic reels. God knows if they still play but I know that I've got em!

The SFX include excerpts from "Hole In My Shoe", Beatles White Album,
Crimson's "Mars" and "Epitaph" efx and the entire set of Mk II Rhythm
tapes which I sampled onto reel-to-reel with the never realized
expectation of getting them on to a M400 tape frame. This includes both
the breaks and fills tapes from the left keyboard.

On the recordings I played on in UK, I used Mark II's present in studios
about town. But #123 was my first machine that I owned for myself. Wish
I still had that one.

I'm on the lookout for a Mark II or Mark V these days for collector and
home recording use.

Anyone?

Regards,
Les Fradkin