Turtlerock Forum

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/261533473010 ... 1423.l2649

wow

I saw that earlier in the week.

In Marrickville..."paging Steve Jones"...

For those In Search of the Lost Chord!!! Alegedly it was the Moody Blues 'tron!!!!!!!!! That should be in a museum.

I just saw that.... It will be fascinating to see what it goes for and whether it stays in Australia.

Maybe not the provenance the seller hoped for (though I would love to own it myself). From Mike Pinder himself (Moody Blues keys) on http://www.mikepinder.com

"Finally, the model 400 came along with its tape-cassette. I did not use this model, though. It was too small for my stage needs, and I felt that the sound quality was not acceptable"

Interesting read though about the development of the Mellotron and Moody Blues' use of it...

Steve

It's got no bloody tapes in it !
I had Toivo Pilts ( Sebastian Hardie) M400 that somebody gave me as a birthday present
in the late 80s. He told me it didn't work so I used it as a pot plant stand.
In about 1995 I was pottering around with studio stuff, and thought I'd try plugging it in and see what's what.
Unbelievably it worked !
There was only 1 tape note that was mangled.
Ended up selling it for $3,500 in 1996 !
Thanks to Brett Gxxxxx...that was one of the best birthday presents I ever got.
( true story)
These things will only appreciate.

Cheers

Totally off topic, but Harry do you have a sister called Kat by any chance?

Nymo that's a great story!
I'm gonna hafta dig out that old Sebastian Hardie record now....

So with this thing, I guess you need to buy about 36 blank cassettes and do it yourself

Adam ...yeah..I felt like a bit of dill for never trying it before !
It uses 3/8 inch tape..I reckon there is about between $1000 and $2000 dollars investment to get it going.
Imagine having 35 tape machines in one unit..that's what these things are like.
One would hope the motor actually works !

Cheers

a.d.a.m. baby wrote:Nymo that's a great story!
I'm gonna hafta dig out that old Sebastian Hardie record now....

.... For a moment, it will hold you......

Excuse my ignorance but why so valuable? How rare are they?

I'm not saying it's not worth it, but to me it looks like just an old (and rather useless) curiosity.

I see Alex Plavsic who was/is the drummer from Sebastian Hardie quite often.
His day gig is front of house manager at Sydney Theatre.
They did a new album a couple of years ago.....I think they may be working on another.
I'll tell him your story when I see him next Nymo.

There was a guy in Perth...Dom...( Kingdom Studios)from memory who had 2 or 3 Mellotrons.

These were such a groundbreaking instrument when released and changed the sound of rock music - they were the first real instrument to allow a rock band to sound orchestral and were key to the sound of bands like The Moody Blues, King Crimson, Hawkwind, Yes, etc etc.

e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKQKUBrxyBc

I went to just about every Sebastian Hardie gig in Melbourne. When they supported Focus at Festival hall, Mario used two of Jan Akkerman's Yamaha rotating speaker cabs and when Focus came on there was a wall of the Yamie "leslie" cabs and the sound was pretty awsome. Even though they where such a derivative sound of Focus, Sebastian Hardie had enough of their own sound and musicianship to pull it off really well. Even bought a revolving speaker setup for my guitar rig. I had my main amp on one side of the stage and the Melbourne made Bach revolving speaker the other side of stage. It really threw the chorus sound around a small room.

Best thing about thee standard 400 was that it had 3 sounds..strings, flute ( strawberry fields) and choir.
These were switched by an a/b/c switch...so each piece of tape had the three sounds on it..comprende ?
Now..if you switched it between a and b ie ab, you would get a mix of the choir/string etc..neat huh ?

If somebody wanted different sounds, then Mellotron had recorded a heap of orchestral sounds at Abbey Rd and had them on "tape racks" that you could replace..so if you wanted a custom sound, one had to go to Mellotron and custom request it...so sounds weren't cheap. That's why the classic rack that came the M400 was strings/flute/choir..so you'll hear those sounds particularly on most 70s records. Rich bands like the Beatles could have any sound they wanted !

Most of the bands mentioned, Beatles , King Crimson , Yes etc used the larger two manual ones...these were the "studio" machines..the M400 was mainly used as a live unit..it weighed a lot less than the Mark V ( the classic studio one) and so roadies didn't complain so much.

Most bands took two M400 units live as they were horrendously unreliable ( sorta like taking an MCI on the road !) and needed constant tweaking.
The other problem in those days was that power at venues was pretty unreliable. The psu was susceptible to power fluctuations. There was a sort of manual tape speed adjustment ( this is where the motor comes in ..it's other job is to pull the tape back into the rack) so if the power was bad, the pitch would be pulled way down and even with adjustment they couldn't be pulled back into 440 pitch. There are some classic Mellotron bloopers on live albums from the 70s !
I fell in love with that Mellotron string sound ( although I had no idea what it was!) when I first head Yes Heart of the Sunrise off Fragile in 1971...it was a haunting sound that I still love today.
A real Mellotron is like playing a Hammond Organ....sure there is software out there that sounds like it, but you sit in front of it and play it..it's a totally tactile experience. Ever play a Hammond C3 ? .then you know what I mean !

The other thing that I love about the Mellotron is that each piece of tape lasts for 7 seconds..so if you hold down a note longer than that, it will just stop ! So , there's a certain art to actually playing one. So note have to change within about 5 seconds..what happens after that time is the tape goes "squirrelly " by that I mean the tape sounds as though it's being mangled !
Once you let go of a key, a large spring then pulls the tape back ( slowly) and deposits it into a tape bin in the floor of the keyboard . It really is an elaborate electro mechanical system that for all it's flaws and lo-Fi sound, is just one of those keyboards that commands respect. I never forgot the first time I played a Hohner D6 Clav ,it's just a wonderous feeling.
This is why all these types of keyboards are classic..and that's why I have had the great opportunity to own most of them. I am richer for the experience and much poorer of wallet !
There has been a large resurgence in Mellotron in the last few years and there are various brand both electro mechanical and electronic from manufacturers like Mellotron , Streetley Electronics, Mannikin etc..go on line and check them out !

Cheers

Steve F..the guys name who gave me the Mellotron ( through Toivo) is in what I wrote originally.
If you want his surname just pm me.
( I have x'd his name out for matters of privacy...also he may want to kill me if he found out it actually worked..although he obviously never bothered to try it either !)

Cheers

Thanks John