Mellotronists

<< Question for all you M400 owners out there. Have any of you seen/owned a 
tapeframe
that appears to have 3/8" Fluon guides(whitish Teflon colour)  in 
turnbuckles? JB
told me this was very early when tapeframes  had S/N's ( as they now do from 
Streetly).
If yes, please share that with us. My original tapeframe with these is #120 . 
The
20th frame?? >>

tf118 is here; it came from streetly last year with a new set of tapes on it 
(piano, plucked piano and the 8-voice choir). it has the old-style tape 
retention, the only one of my eight frames like this, but the turnbuckles 
look the same as the rest of them. where does the serial number live on the 
later frames, or don't they have one? mine just have mellotron stickers 
and/or luggage labels listing the sounds, the client and the date. none of 
them is earlier than 1975. my original frame has a tiny metal tag bolted to 
one edge, with "B.B." stamped on it, and "mr ball" written in chinagraph on 
the first tape. hmm..... dave ball, I wonder? (soft cell- did they use a 
'tron, ever?)

best-behaved tapeset *before* last year's pitstop was edgar froese's frame 
from 1977 (orchestra, flute, gc brass); now they all behave..... well, we 
haven't had the front off since the machine came back from streetly in 
woolly's nissan. it used to be open all the time for pulling stuck tapes 
down. I think it's something to do with right angles...

d/400nr1098