M400 - #1226.
I'm afraid ol' #1226 seems to have had a
somewhat sordid history:
I bought it from a coworker in a music store in Seattle
during our grunge heyday in the mid 90's. My coworker bought from a junky
guitarist who sold it out from under his band, the keyboardist of which was an
acquaintance of mine. The junky guitarist bought the Mellotron for $100 in
a transaction conducted on the stairs of the music store on the way up to the
keyboard department from a pair of lackeys from an unnamed studio somewhere
outside Seattle.
One day a month or so after buying #1226, while tending
my keyboard department , a rather distinguished Englishman came up and started
asking about any recent Mellotron activity. He said that he was the studio
manager and that his studio assistants sold the instrument without his
permission. It also seems that at some point in its previous history, #1226 was
declared destroyed in a studio fire for insurance purposes, and that the studio
was supposedly owned by a rather famous former Mellotronist from an
English band that realized that allowing the original King Crimson to open
for them would be career suicide. Why this person was setting up a studio in
rural Washington and why the insurance scam I sure don't know nor do I
know of how to prove or disprove it.
But I do know I had to make peace with
all kinds of folks for buying this instrument: my friend from the junkie's band
who I had several conversations with about my new Mellotron before we realized
it had been his and he didn't even know it was gone, the studio manager who
seemed to be a man of some history and stature somewhere, but who
acknowledged that it was perhaps a misunderstanding between himself and his
assistants that allowed the sale, and who made several allusions to the
providence of #1226 and told me that I had acquired something special and
that I was a lucky man who couldn't be blamed for my part in
this series of sordid transactions. All very "Maltese Falcon" like.
I had to replace the motor control board right off and a missing
knob or two, plus I insisted on paying my keyboardist friend for his
loss. The folks that seemed to have come out best on all this? I suppose the
junky guitarist and my mercenary coworker and maybe the studio lackeys who got
to split a $100 for cleaning out someone's studio. I think I need to shower
now...I feel dirty.
Paul T. M400 #1226
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 11:44 AM
Subject: [Mellotronists] 541 is alive
I have M400 #541 abtained summer 2005. The machined lived in a recording
studio in the corner for years before I was hired to record there and found it
sitting quietly in a corner. Bought it for my studio. Needed work, so THE
Professor of all things mellotronic restored the Aloha tron to better than
original. Where I live (close to tv/radio tower) there is lots of RF coming thru
heads, so machine has been lined with foil. Untill I move clear or this
interference, the noise will be slightly present. See file folder above for
sample of 541 singing with some low freek stuff under ...listen close you will
hear it.
Acompanied by my real violin and piano.
Enjoy fellow
tronheads,
and the best to you
Lee
