Mellotronists

kenmerb@... wrote:

> Hello All,
>
>     I just wanted to let everyone know that I did something very interesting
> with my MKII over the last couple of weeks.  I changed the tapes, putting a
> new Streetly set into the RH side.  This was quite a process, the
> Mellotronists equivalent of having a root canal, but everything worked out
> fine.  Thanks to Martin Smith who recorded the new set and walked me through
> the process of replacement with a great deal of patience.  Also thanks to Bob
> Young, who recently did the same thing on his MKII, and is now ironing out
> some "cycling gremlins".

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Greetings Everybody,

Thanks KM for sharing your Mellotronic adventures from the "Merbler Triangle."
Reminds me to be ultra careful when completing the fitting of R-F-L tapes
to "Julia." In her case,it will be done entirely on service-stand,the frame and
"gubbins" removed in 1999 (re: photos on  KM's Tronsounds Page) .
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>      I was extremely *careful*, this being the Merbler Triangle and all.
> Even though Bob gave me a heads up on the dangers of the Wharfedale magnet
> (which acts as a giant black hole for wayward tapes), I still ran into a
> problem.  While replacing tape #20 or so, I dropped my all-metal screwdriver
> and it quickly attached itself to the RH speaker magnet (through a towel I
> had wrapped around the magnet).  Thinking nothing of this, I grabbed the
> screwdriver and continued changing tapes until (around tape #30) I wondered
> if the screwdriver had become magnetized.  Much to my horror, it had.  But
> I'm happy to say, none of my tapes were affected, so all's well.

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Whoops! You're lucky, KM.  Will remind me to remove my orig. Wharfedale
dual-cone RS/12/DD speakers from the cabinet first.  Those spkrs. have 14,500
lines of magnetic force.,while the Wharfedale Super-12/RS/DD with huge magnets
possess 17,000 lines.

The M400 tapes which MK1/124 orig. possessed (Gordon's custom set from 1982?),
has dropouts on  tapes 1-4 on left-hand keyboard,and 31-35 on right-hand keyboard.
Yes folks,that's right!  Someone/something forgot to remove the spkrs when
either installing tapes or when the Mellotron was being "fiddled-with." I got Julia with
10" cheapo Radio-Shack woofers,and horn tweeters dangling by wires inside.
These attached to nicely-built Terry-Kelly audio power-amp (w. integral power-pack).
Julia now has 95% visually accurate reproductions of orig. 1960's audio amps,
with Y2K technology within.
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> The biggest
> challenge about doing one of these seems to be getting the cycling to work
> again after replacing the synch (cycling) tape.  It's kind of like restarting
> the patient's heart after a heart transplant.  Mine worked after a while,
> Bob's hasn't yet, but Martin's working on it with him.

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I had a "fun time" doing timing adj. on my M300 in 1999. Inching function has to
start about 1-1.5 ft before you reach the corresponding station contact on rotating
sync switch.  MK1/124 will have its orig. Meccano chain fitted,and WHO KNOWS
how that will sort-out. Only JB and MS come to think,as they have the two other Mark-I's
known in the world .
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>      For those interested, Ken L and I both took digital photos and will
> document this process on our web sites for future generations of
> Mellotronists to refer to.

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Please do, KM. In like fashion, I'll submit Julia updates to the KM Tronsounds Page
when ready.

Hoping for a "careful" root-canal soon on Julia. BTW, did  you use  NOVAcaine?
"Is it safe? " - from MaraTRON man.    --Later Dudes, Jerry Korb