The Mellotron Group

In a message dated 6/5/2008 2:29:31 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
markpringnz@yahoo.com writes:

But is  #1565 a sound sales machine?

Mark




Mark, 
 
It is not a Sound Sales machine. Yours came directly from England to the  
buyer. Mine went from England to Sound Sales in Connecticut where is was  
upgraded with a PML-1 and a SMS-3, which is almost exactly like an SMS-2, but  
supposedly, "improved," although I can't see how, since the schematics are  nearly 
exactly the same. 1562 also had a balanced (XLR) output as well as a  standard 
1/4 inch line out.
 
I have worked on a ton of these machines, and I have never seen one that  
went through Sound Sales that was exactly like any other one. It was like they  
just decided to try different things to see what worked... or what they could 
do  to screw up a Mellotron. 
 
When Mellotrons started being shipped from the factory with SMS cards as  
standard, the designation changed from M400S to 400SM. I don't think the serial  
number has any real bearing on that. It probably more like this...
 
"...here's a bunch of Mellotrons we're going to ship to America. we'll  
assign them these (perhaps random) serial numbers and Sound Sales can do  whatever 
they want with them."
 
Yours and mine both started on the assembly line together and most probably  
on the same day. At some point they stopped working on mine, crated it and 
sent  it to Sound Sales to be trimmed out. I think it is strange that you had a 
CMC-10  in yours, but I have a theory on that, too.
 
I think that the factory was moving a lot more machines than Sound Sales  
was. I know a lot of people that could have bought one from Sound Sales that  
didn't. They were a lot cheaper if you bought them directly from the factory and  
had them shipped over. As I recall, the guy who first owned my machine bought 
it  in late 1975. It was a 400SM from day one.
 
Speculation, that's all.
 
Regards,
 
Frank
 
PS. I currently have 386, 911 and 1017 (I think) in my shop. Last night I  
cleaned and polished approximately 414 screws, bolts, nuts and washers...  just 
for 911's keyboard. Tonight a will clean and polish all of the keyboard  frame 
rails, cross members stand-offs, etc. Tomorrow, all of the pinch rollers  
will be reconditioned and the key springs will be polished and given new  felt 
isolators . I have already cleaned and polished all of the keys. New felt  has 
been installed all around on the pressure pads. So Saturday I can put it all  
in the jig and but Sunday evening I will have a completely refurbished keyboard 
 for 911. I have to have two machines completely ready to go for a big show 
on  June 22nd. As you may well know, 386, the black one, is done. That one was 
a  complete Sound Sales crapfest. Not any more.



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