Mellotronists

In a message dated 5/18/2006 10:47:31 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
jonesalley@... writes:

You know  what puzzles me every time one of these debates starts?

NOBODY can  really be making enough money from Mellotron manufacture and 
restoration  to justify all of the rancor that oozes out occasionally.  I 
could  understand it if we were talking about  
country-manor-with-a-Bentley-and-a-Feadship-and-a-LearJet-as-well-as-a-vacatio
n-home-on-the-Riviera  
kind of money, but that didn't happen back when Mellotrons were a big dog  in 
the keyboard world, and seems far less likely to happen today.  It  seems 
more like a Stradivarius labor-of-love kind of business than a  crank-'em-out 
Korg Triton kind of a business and even if there was only  ONE source for 
Mellotron development, manufacture, and life-support it  would still be 
difficult to make a financially rewarding living at  it.  These things aren't 
exactly amenable to assembly-line business  models, and with as 
labor-intensive as I would imagine their construction  to be, it will always 
be a cottage industry with a real boutique kind of  cachet.  I have utmost 
respect for everybody that contributes to the  continued legacy of these 
noble instruments and it is a shame that there  is so much baggage that has 
the potential to damage their continuing  story.

Sincerely,
Rodney King 



Dear Rodney,
 
Let's all pray for their continued survival. After all, it's hard to beat a  
real Mellotron.