eBay 4-Track report
2007-02-04 by MAinPsych@aol.com
I had the opportunity to drive up to L.A. on Saturday to check out the eBay 4-Track. For starters, its location was at Figueroa and 79th, not exactly Beverly Hills and not exactly where you would expect to find a Mellotron. The condition of the apartment it was in looked like it went through the recent Florida tornado. Crap all over the place, no furniture, and largely unliveable and bordering near condemnation status (but who am I to judge?). There it was, my first actual look at a 4-Track. Externally, it was rather filthy, such that if I were to wet the tip of my finger and run it across the top or on the keys, it would have left a nice brown streak. Hey, but it's an aluminum cabinet, something that a little 409 could fix. No discernable damage to the cabinet. By contrast, internally it was surprisingly VERY clean; heads appeared in good condition (no wear or rust spots), the capstan could use a little polishing, and the pads and rollers were in very good condition (no pad replacement needed, just the ordinary dipping of the rollers in alcohol to clean them up and have them spinning freely). I did notice that the adjustment screws for the pads and rollers appeared to be screwed down quite a bit (more on this in a moment). And the smaller thumbscrews and decreased access to them (e.g., too close to the frame) make keyboard and tape frame removal somewhat of a pain in the ass -- no 3-5 minute frame changes with this machine. Before exploring inside, we fired it up. No crackling/static, but the keys were rather tight and required some effort to press. The actual sound of the tapes sucked big time (choir/3 violins/?/church organ). Channel three gave no sound at all and the owner "couldn't recall" what sound was on it. We unscrewed the module and looked at the circuit card, polished the contacts and reinserted it, with still no sound. Pitch/motor controller was stable and the pitch control worked smoothly. The pot action was smooth with no static or crackling. The tape return seemed rather sluggish, and some springs looked rather stretched out, or either had incorrect and/or inferior springs installed. Remember, the 4-Track was the only non-British Mellotron at the timeuntil the Mk-VI, and what the hell was Bomar Fabricators? A good idea in the wrong hands. After removing and inspecting the keyboard and reinstalling it. There was a marked difference in the feel of the keys (e.g., much looser). When we fired it up again, with the front panel off, many of the tapes started feeding through as soon as the tron was turned on. Shut it down, reinstalled the keyboard, fired it up, and the same thing occurred again. What was happening? Well, despite the two guide pins the 4-Track has for aligning the keyboard, somehow it was not mounted properly, accounting for the aforementioned stiff action when I first played it. After reinstalling the keyboard properly after my internal inspection, it was the overtightening of the pad and roller adjustment screws that was causing the rollers to be in constant contact with the capstan on more than 75% of the tapes. A couple of the pinch rollers screws were tightened so much that I almost couldn't get my fingernail underneath them! An easy, but time consuming and Mellotronist's-hunchback inducing task to remedy. I wasn't able to open up the back, due to the facts that it was mounted on the tron with four flat-head screws, the owner had no screwdriver handy, and I had not brought along my tron tool kit. The front panel flat-head screws were loose enough to get out via my thumbnail and a the end of a small key I had on my key ring. There was no visible serial number on the back panel or on the internal frame. Since I couldn't get the back panel off, there may have been one somewhere inside. At least we know it's either S/N 1, 2, 3, or 4! I was also skeptical about the owner's story regarding the 4-Track's history; that he did "electronic music" and "liked analog gear", although the aforementioned environment did not suggest this, plus the question of just how much use it got, even though the keyboard was so far out of alignment, having sucky tapes and one channel not working. He said he acquired it from a guy here in San Diego who used it on a radio show he did locally. Now, I've been here in S.D. since 1965 and active in the music scene, but had never heard of this guy nor the show he is alleged to have done. Who knows? My own #908 was owned by a guy here in San Diego (who had earlier bought a MiniMoog from me) before being acquired by the guy in Oregon that I got it from, and I had no idea it was here. Conclusion? IMHO, it would make a relatively easy project for someone to get it up to playing specs again, i.e., proper keyboard alignment and adjustment, new tapes, and bottle of 409. Having to replace the card for that inoperable channel might be a bit more of a challenge. Who knows if Mellotron Archives has any such spare cards from the cache of parts that DK acquired? Or would someone with electronics experience be able to trouble shoot and fix the problem? Value? In and of itself, I would offer NO MORE than $2K for it; HOWEVER, because of its rarity, regardless of condition, the buyer can, and is, going to get much more. At this writing, there is a single bid for $5K, with no reserve and three days left on the auction. Frank Samagaio San Diego CA owner, MkII #134 (Pindertron) / M400 #908 author, The Mellotron Book