Mellotronists

I still have not manged to purchase a mellotron for myself,
so I've been using mellotron samples with some of the
recording projects I'm working on (...none of which are
complete, yet...)

Using the VSynth sampler, I am able to trigger the Mellotron
sounds (or any other sample) and create a fairly accurate
mellotron take.  Borrowing from this idea, I've created some
sample sets from guitar players who have been coming in to
lay down tracks.  Once we get a tone dialed in and determine
what type of attack/decay I'd like to capture, the guitarist
simply plays through 2 octaves of notes - holding each note
for ~10 seconds or so.

The result is pretty fun - basically a digital 'tron.  With a
close mic, a couple room mics, and some mics in the hallway;
I can mix in the desired delay/reverb for each take.  This
adds to some variety in the tone and avoids excessive,
digital processing (...though we are recording these takes,
digitally...)

Has anyone made tape racks (recently) from this type of
approach?  ...ok, I'm assuming this isn't significantly
different from how the tape racks are made - I guess I'm just
curious if the process of creating the tape racks is cost
prohibitive for this type of transfer, or if the flexbility
that I'm accustom in the digital domain does not translate to
mellotron tape rack?

-jh