Inerchangeable parts...
2005-05-24 by Jack Younger
Hello all!
I recently had the opportunity to work for Paul
Kolderie (producer; Radiohead, Pixies, Hole, etc.) on
two M400's he obtained from the old Beatlemania
touring company (I can see the Brits among us rolling
your eyes, and justifiably so, as I myself tend to use
the more accurate term; Beatle-lame-ia). At any rate,
it was a pretty interesting mess.
Paul's instructions were to make the one working
unit (or as we have taken to calling it; Happy 'Tron)
strong and approach the second (Sad 'Tron) at a later
date, as the power supply appears to have caught fire
at one point. No wonder as I found many questionable
mods and electronic fixes in Sad 'Tron. The standard
mod seemed to be for the purpose of bypassing the
Volume and Tone controls to keep players from changing
the levels accidentally on-stage, and maitaining a
consistant signal for the front-of-house guy.
It seems that they undoubtedly had four or so
units on the tour and the tech/techs would hastily
interchange frames, motors, preamps etc. I found at
least four sets of serial #'s littered throughout the
two units.
These won't be candidates for full overhaul as
the cabinets were a wreck. Solid, but painted with
rollers, brushes, sprays, corners ground down, a
select array of pits and gouges and clumsily drilled
holes to allow for new bases as the feet were long
gone.
The internal workings were a delight, however, as
they both had SMS boards, stong motors and good tape
sets.
So after cannibalizing Sad 'Tron to make Happy
'Tron happier, We have a very serviceable unit. Sad
'Tron is currently awaiting a power and preamp
re-working and will be happy again soon. Numbers
unknown, they will reside in Paul's new studio in
Revere, MA and I'm sure will be used and maintained
sweetly.
Cheers all!
-Jack Younger
EMI104s
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