Mellotronists

Bob,

This was Martin Smith of Streetly you were speaking about? I am confused
because you used the words "superb" and "proven" in the same sentence...

Rick (FX Console 10030--bad enough putting in just three new tapes after
Tronto MkII!)

Robert and Suzanne Young wrote:

>  Hi Ken, Hi Folks:
>
> Yes, Ken M. and I embarked on a journey few have taken - swapping MKII
>
> tapes !  Of course, I had a superb and proven guide watching over me
> in
> the form of Streetly Electronics (i.e. Martin Smith and, no doubt, JB
> in
> the background going "What has that guy buggered up now ??").
> Actually,
> I haven't had time to work on the cycling glitch on MKII #118 although
>
> I'm sure it will get sorted out. After the intitial anxiety attack of
> getting into the guts of the machine has passed, the process is
> straight-forward but a notable workout for the fingers and forearms.
> My
> mishap with the tape vs Wharfedale was the result of a blatant bit of
> carelessness on my part (i.e., not listening carefully to Martin). If
> one avoids such activity, I don't believe that there is really a need
> to
> remove the speakers.  Considering the size of the magnet, the
> encounter
> had amazingly limited effect - about a 1-1.5.second drop out on
> Station
> 6.
>
> Most importantly, the new sounds are terrific !!!  The new LH roster
> includes:
> Station 1: Fairlight Swanee, Adrian Belew's sus. guitar, Steve
> Hacketts'
> sus. guitar
> Station 2: Oboe, Russian Choir (IMPRESSIVE), St. John's wood organ
> Station 3: Cello, M300A strings, French horn
> Station 4: Gothic, Medieval woodwind, Orchestra (IMO, the best sound
> mix)
> Station 5: Recorder, M300B strings, Ian McDonald flute (NICE !!)
> Station 6: Woodwind 2, bass clarinet (rattles the windows), Cor
> Anaglais/oboe split
>
> The RH keyboard remain traditional leads.
>
> Having now delved a  bit deeper into the workings of a MKII, I stand
> behind my contention of some time ago regarding the ingenious design
> and
> robustness of these MKII machines.  They're really quite impressive
> and
> 37 years old !!!
>
> Later
>
> Bob Y.
>
> kenmerb@... wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 10/22/2002 6:18:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > kenmerb@... writes:
> >
> >      Regarding the cycling, Martin's tape replacement method
> >      provided a way to bypass the timing issues. I replaced each
> >      tape by attaching the new tape to old, and pulling it
> >      through the tron, using the existing tape as a guide.  This
> >      way, I didn't have to take off the cycling chain or the
> >      drums.  That probably would have been a nightmare to adjust
> >      afterwards
> >
> > To clarify here, both Bob and I had cycling problems after replacing
>
> > the tapes, but they weren't timing issues.  It was just that, upon
> > replacing the synch tape, neither of our machines could find the
> tape
> > bank index marks on the new tape as they passed over the synch
> heads.
> > After a while, mine started working properly, but Bob's wasn't
> working
> > the last time I heard from him.  Martin's sending him another synch
> > tape with a stronger signal, in case that's the problem.  Bob - if
> > you're out there, let us know how it's going.
> >
> > Ken M.
> Hi Folks:
>
> Yes, Ken M. and I embarked on a journey few have taken - swapping MKII
>
> tapes !  Of course, I had a superb and proven guide watching over me
> in
> the form of Streetly Electronics (i.e. Martin Smith and, no doubt, JB
> in
> the background going "What the hell has that banjo-pickin' moron
> buggered up now ??").  Actually, I haven't had time to work on the
> cycling glitch on MKII #118 although I'm sure it will get sorted out.
> After the intitial anxiety attack of getting into the guts of the
> machine has passed, the process is straight-forward but a notable
> workout for the fingers and forearms.  My mishap resulting in the tape
>
> vs Wharfedale contest was the result of a blatant bit of carelessness
> on
> my part (i.e., not listening carefully to Martin; geeze, I hate
> groveling like this). If one avoids such errors, I don't believe that
> there is really a need to remove the speakers.  Considering the size
> of
> the magnet, the encounter had amazingly limited effect - about a
> 1-1.5.second drop out on Station 6.
>
> Most importantly, the new sounds are terrific !!! (timed impeccably I
> might add). The new LH roster includes:
> Station 1: Fairlight Swanee, Adrian Belew's sus. guitar, Steve
> Hacketts'
> sus. guitar
> Station 2: Oboe, Russian Choir (IMPRESSIVE), St. John's wood organ
> Station 3: Cello, M300A strings, French horn
> Station 4: Gothic, Medieval woodwind, Orchestra (IMO, the best Tron
> sound mix of all time)
> Station 5: Recorder, M300B strings, Ian McDonald flute (NICE !!)
> Station 6: Woodwind 2, bass clarinet (rattles the windows), Cor
> Anaglais/oboe split
>
> The RH keyboard remain traditional leads.
>
> Having now delved a bit deeper into the workings of a MKII, I stand
> behind my contention of some time ago regarding the ingenious design
> and
> robustness of these MKII machines.  They're really quite impressive
> and
> 37 years old !!!
>
> Later
>
> Bob Y.