Mellotronists

Hi y'all,
Just thought I'd chip in a few thoughts here. I've made a brass 
screwdriver for adjusting pad/roller screws, so no magnetisation 
problems. Yes it's obviously softer that steel but;  if you have a few 
stiffies - they can be eased by screwing completely out, giving 
them a light touch with the edge of a candle and screwing back in. 
Makes adjusting a lot easier but do check the underside for loose 
specks of wax as you don't want these falling on your tapes!
A warning for those prone to taking off the pressure pad assembly 
on MkII/M300s; the bolts and treads screw vertically into the 
support pillars - but the tops of the pillars are chamfered at an 
angle so the pads are held at the correct pitch. This means when 
you screw down the bolt you are tightening down vertically onto an 
angled surface and this will eventually weaken and even shear off 
the bolt head leaving you with a stuffed pillar that you can't drill out. 
Believe me - I've done it and ended up making 2 new pillars. It's 
worth replacing those bolts every few times you undo them.
Bob's synch tape problem; signal strength could be the problem 
here. I have a weak signal on station 5 and occationally it misses it 
going one way but picks it up when it auto-reverses. But do check 
if it's not working at all that the pulse head connections haven't 
been damaged. It's very easy to bash one of the connection legs off 
the underside of the head when you are removing/replacing the 
keyboards.
And another thing while I'm rambling on. Be mega-careful when 
tightening up the cycling motor clutch. It only needs pinching tight 
by just enough so you can no longer turn the drums by hand. If you 
over tighten you will bend or even shear off the pin that secures the 
clutch plate to the gearbox spindle - result - the clutch is tightened 
onto the body of the gearbox and this will cease the thing 
completely. If you replace tapes and turn on and it won't cycle - 
just blows fuses instead there's a good chance this is what you've 
done.
Have fun

John
M300#005