Mellotronists

Whoops!!

Sorry - I need a nap.

This fellow passed away last year. He was a wonderful person and was always
full of stories about his musician experiences ( the good old days). He was
a grandfatherly repair man who horded tons of old gear, sold it all for
cheap prices to famous/non famous Canadian musicians, and was easily taken
in by savvy collectors. This was before the internet.

He once offered a cherrywood B3 to me for $1000 but I didn't have it in me
to add to what so many others seemed to be doing. I also considered him a
friend for his honesty with me. I met him in 1990 when I needed a Korg CX-3
fixed.

At first I doubted that he was fully aware of the Mellotron / Chamberlin. I
thought maybe he could have been embellishing just a bit. Maybe confusing
these with more common instruments like a Hammond or Lowrey organ. But he
gave me detailed descriptions of the keyboards and never altered his story.
I also saw the M2 he spoke of at a studio. It was exactly as he described
it. He also described a time in the late 70's / early 80's when musicians
couldn't get ahold of tapes and lots of machines were  trashed because of
this. Does anyone else know about this period?  Jerry any ideas about
this??? Is this Bill Eberline's era?

Anyway, he was also getting visibly annoyed the more I asked him about
throwing the Chamberlin away after discovering that they were now being sold
for several grand. He was embarrassed and admitted that he should have at
least turned the thing on before tossing it, but that his room was so
crowded with things and he considered the Chamberlin redundant and obsolete
because of the ARP Omni.

His was most likely a Chamberlin 300 or a 200, as he said it looked just
like the M1 but went right down to the floor. He also knew the M series
because of working with the M2 at his friends studio.

Very nice man. I miss him and will not see his like again. He was truly of
his own time.



  -----Original Message-----
  From: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of lsf5275@...
  Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 8:44 PM
  To: chris.dale@...; kornowicz@...; Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
  Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] How rare are these babies?


  In a message dated 3/22/2006 8:40:28 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
chris.dale@... writes:
    It also resembles the Chamberlin that was given to a deceased friend of
mine
    several years ago.

  Chris, with all due respect, how do you give something to a dead person?


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