Mellotronists

Today I turned loose # 740 and #1072 back to their owners. God I was sad to  
see them go! I have been working on restoring these machines since August.  
Normally I would have been done 8 weeks ago, but with the wife's  health and 
other issues I was slowed a bit.
 
 I want to issue special thanks to Martin Smith at Streetly, who  
demonstrated once again that when deadlines have to be met, they will be.
 
I also want to thank Markus Resch for his help and support along with a  
couple of SMS-5s. 
 
We are lucky to have such good resources. Because of Mellotron Archives and  
Streetly, two more pieces of shit have been resurrected and returned to  
playability. 
 
I am happy to let you all know that these two Trons will not be secluded in  
someone's living room or basement, "studio," but will be actively be played to 
 the public, as both will be used in touring bands in the US northeast.
 
If you want to make your Trons sound the best that they can, send your  
headblock to Streetly and have them reset the azimuths on your tape playback  
heads. This is a most important, "must do," and will substantially improve the  
sound of you machine.
 
I am also a big fan of the SMS-5 sold by Markus Resch of Mellotron  Archives. 
It is rock solid and offers the ability to, with the throw of a  switch, 
change the pitch to an alternate predetermined other setting (think  half speed 
brass). This card, or the SMS-2 sold by Streetly are the only way to  go if you 
have a Tron with one of those crappy old CMC-10 cards. Either one will  give 
you rock-solid pitch stability. 
 
Lastly, if anyone wants to see some photos of the resurrections, let me  know.
 
Happy New Year,
 
Frank