Sorry I'm late to the party..
I'll try to shed some light.
Wakeman never owned a MK V. Supposedly, the only reason the MK V was
ever built was because Wakeman put two existing M400 machines together and
demonstrated that there was a demand for a double unit again. I have no
independent facts to verify this though.
The definite facts are: The "Wakeman Double-Tron" was made from two
separate M400 models which were completely dismantled. The innards of both were
put into a much thicker wooden cabinet with thick aluminium
inside. The electronics are also completely customized, and new tapes were
put in that have the sounds eq'd slightly differently / errors
removed (like the bang on the high F cello. He probably did this with the
support of Mellotronics, though). Some of the people at Packhorse /
Birotronics were also involved. These were part of Wakeman's Complex 7
business group.
The machine does sound different than the regular M400's and fixing it
was extremely arduous and frustrating for everyone, and took a VERY
long time between myself, former YES tech Frank Levi, Professor Jerry Korb, and
support from both Dave Kean and Streetly because of the customizations
and the fact they had different people working on it at different times. Jerry
Korb however, deserves the very special golden credit for getting it going.
YES technician Michael Tate was the man who did the initial re-build work.
Wakeman claims it was used on all his solo efforts and all YES
material except "Fragile", which had used two earlier Mellotrons. The
actual dismantling / re- assembly took place in 1972, and the Tales tour is
the first appearance of the instrument. The production certificate states
"Black YES Machine # 3) so it seems to confirm Wakeman's claims. It was
apparently stolen at some point by some of Wakeman's tech crew (along
with at least two other Mellotrons) when Wakeman was going through a
divorce and during the Birotron struggle when they were losing money and it
appeared he couldn't pay some of them. The machine had
experienced neglect, and badly needed to be refinished. The Birotron
multi-turn pitch knob appears to be a direct idea lift from the multi
turn pitch knob of the Double Tron, and there is some "comparison crossover"
between the two.
The unit is visible on the front cover of the Journey Album supporting two
minimoogs, and appears in Yesyears, and in a Rockschool video, as well as the
Rock Hardware book. Wakeman seems to have special affinity for it over his other
Trons.
I initially received the machine as a mouldy and rusted wreck
when purchasing a broken Chamberlin. I was threatened that if I
didn't take it very soon, it would be in the Detroit city dump. I
didn't believe the seller at first, but then he called and screamed
nightmarishly down the line at me, and I went back to get it thinking
he was probably lying about it being Wakeman's old machine and I was being
suckered, though I still felt sympathetic because he was going through a divorce
/ losing his business etc. I've since heard he's died of cancer.
After cleaning the rust, mould, food spills, dirt, and corrosion I took
some pictures and began to wonder after seeing what looked like the same
machine on an old Wakeman concert video. I contacted Wakeman to verify that
it used to be his. He told me it was and that he was shocked I had it,
because it went missing years before.
I've copied the details from two interviews:
RW:
The RMI, I have a lot of equipment stolen, about eight years ago. My RMI was
stolen, a lot of it was stolen. I have heard that some of it is in private
collections. In the same way I was speaking to Keith Emerson about this last
year, who's friend of mine, you know there's certainly a situation where ...
almost like people who collect paintings, there are people who collects
equipment. I mean, I had a double Mellotron that was made for me. It was
stolen many years ago, and just recently a man wrote to me in America, and he
just bought it and he wanted me to authenticate it. And it was in a quiet bad
condition and he wanted to repair. So I wrote him back and I said: "You know,
I'm really glad you've got it. Actually it was stolen. But don't worry, I'm not
asking to give back, I don't want it back, but it was stolen from me.
The above is from http://yesmuseum.org/WakeView3.html
So what sort of stuff did you lose?
RW: I lost about six minimoogs, a couple of Mellotrons,
a Fender Rhodes, a huge long list of stuff. And some of its resurfaced. One of
the Mellotrons, the famous double Mellotron resurfaced. And a guy got hold of it
and rebuilt it, and thats in a museum somewhere in America. And he contacted me
to verify that it used to be mine, and I wrote back to him and said, Yeah, it
was stolen in nineteen whatever it was. And it completely freaked him out. He
called up and said, I didnt steal it. And I said, I know you didnt,
because youre hardly likely to have stolen it and then ring me up. And he
said, Do you want it back? And I said, No, if youve rebuilt it, good for
you. Im glad that its got a good home, and Im glad that its in a museum. So
there you go.
This is
from http://www.pertout.com/Wakeman.htm
Somehow he heard of my other things
and believes my place is a museum. (I don't recall telling him, but I might
have.)
After getting it working, I recorded
the the Double Mellotron sounds on DAT tape which over time I gave to
him backstage at several YES concerts. I thought it only right that he have
his old sounds back as there was some custom stuff that's not available
elsewhere. I was able to meet
all of YES several times and had them autograph the underside of the lid. I
showed them the pics of the almost decade long restoration process and Jon
Anderson was quite surprised, uttering the word "AMAZING!!" as he looked
them.
There's a lot more to tell, but I
intend to do this on a proper website at some point and not monopolize
everyone's time here.
I've attached some before and after pics
(the control panel was being examined by YES tech Frank Levi.at the
time)
I hope I've answered a few
questions.
Chris
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 8:02
PM
Subject: Fwd: [newmellotrongroup] Sound
question
Hi, Pete.
There's just one error in Doug's response (sorry,
Doug). While the MkV may have come out around the time of RW's segment,
if you look closely you'll see that he's not playing a MkV; he's playing the
infamous "custom-built" industrial-strength double Wake-O-Tron, currently in
the possession of the illustrious Chris Dale ("Hey, everybody! It's
Chris Dale!!!")
Frank 1
-----Original Message-----
From:
caddyfam <caddyfam@simcon. net>
To:
newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com
Sent: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 4:14
pm
Subject: Re: [newmellotrongroup] Sound question
----- Original Message -----
From: marabus <
marabus@verizon. net>
To:
mellotron <
newmellotrongroup@ yahoogroups. com>
Subject:
[newmellotrongroup] Sound question
Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 06:07:51
-0500
>Shortly after this starts you hear Wakeman playing a
flute
>with his right hand and with his left hand a sound that
to
>me sounds like a combination of a Choir and Organ.I love
>that
sound.What's the official name? Thanks,
>Pete
>
>
http://www.bbc. co.uk/musictv/ progbritannia/ video/prog2/>
>>>>To
my understanding, the MK V was then newly acquired
and it sounds like a
direct out signal, that is no
processing of the sound. I plugged my 400
direct into my
amp and get the same sound.
If anyone wants a better
quality of the clip I can send you
a video clip(from Yesyears
laserdisc).. ..Doug
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