Mellotronists

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 jeffc@... wrote:

>
> hi folks...
>
> the mellotron at our studio, the one which had some wiring snipped
> by some idiot trying to tap a signal directly for some reason, is
> acting up again. just a month ago i spent an evening making the
> usual keyboard/pressure pad/pinch roller adjustments, and had the
> thing purring way nicely - the engineer said he never heard it
> sound so good.
>
> then they moved it across a parking lot on a small furniture
> dolly a few days ago, and now the only sound that comes from it
> is white noise... not even a hint of real audio from the tapes.



yup - i am replying to my own post.
senility can be a wonderful thing...


so i gave the whole control panel assembly a good going over,
making sure the pots were dialing in the proper values, the
signals were getting through the wires, etc.

in examining the circuit cards, i noticed that one transistor
had a lg that had lifted from the trace a small bit. so i put
a small bit of solder on to secure the leg, and just this
evening put the control panel back in, fired it up and voila!
[or should that be "viola"?]
it's working again.

i spanked the engineer for moving the machine that way, and
left it in fine working order. until they do something else
stupid to it...


also, thanks to everyone for the off-list tips on the minimoog
pitch wheel problem. i'll be picking up some deoxit ASAP and
hope that solves it... [cramolin is no longer available, at
least in these here parts...]

smooches.
jeff