Mellotronists

I suppose I'm talking about the M-1 here, that's the most
ubiquitous model isn't it?  Though of course ubiquitous may
just be stretching it a tad for something whose production run
was ~100 units.

Not that Mellotrons were sold in such massive numbers, but does 
anyone know why Chamberlins sold so negligibly in the early 70s,
given they had a couple arguable advantages over the M400?

I've seen one M-1 before, but I didn't get to hear it.  Was
buying something from the guy but he was kind of a dick - I 
should've just responded in kind, been a pest, and made him
fire it up.  

Anyway, I'm certainly curious what the general market value
of a common-for-the-brand Chamberlin tape sampler might be
if anyone has any data (or an educated guess, or a wild
guess w.t.f.)?

Hope everyone is having a great summer!!!

I think I can answer some of your questions.


I believe the general market for a Chamberlin is smaller because of
rarity/higher price one has to pay.
Chamberlins (the M series anyway) have gone anywhere from $2000 - $8000 and
lately it's been at the higher end the last time one was on E-bay.

Chamberlins were made to order, as opposed to Mellotrons where they were
produced on a regular basis.
Chamberlins were also made with some high quality parts like Nortronics tape
heads, which made mass production somewhat prohibitively expensive.

Also - by comparison Chamberlins weren't as heavily promoted as Mellotrons
and there wasn't really a classic "Chamberlin" hit song like there was with
Strawberry Fields for the Mellotron. Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me is perhaps
the closest.

Another factor though is the confusion between mellotrons/chamberlins. I'm
sure they've been erroneously mismatched on old record albums due to the
lack of physical knowledge/interest in the machine. I've personally been to
studios where the staff didn't know the difference between a mellotron and
chamberlin and often thought they had a mellotron when indeed it was a
chamberlin and vice-versa.

Also Harry Chamberlin was getting old by the time the M1's were around and
had sacrificed a lot of money producing the machines he had up to that
point. He apparently wasn't interested in going in a head to head
competition and preferred little more than word of mouth advertising.

Chris






----- Original Message -----

From: dscr22 <dscr22@...>
To: <Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2005 10:05 PM
Subject: [Mellotronists] What do Chamberlins go for?


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