BP3 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 By TronDoc, Frank Stickle - [video:youtube]qus9ixxCHsQ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Muscara Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Wow. I imagine that resto would cost as much or more than a new one would in today's dollars. "I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck "The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP3 Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 Frank does wonderful work and is also the source of Mellotron rentals for NEARfest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalpozlead Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 burp... this video gave me GAS. Amazing job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonksDream Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Stunning resto work! The layout of the black keys in the bottom octave (at 6:41) threw me off until I realized the KB went down to G. Instrumentation is meaningless - a song either stands on its own merit, or it requires bells and whistles to cover its lack of adequacy, much less quality. - kanker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUSSIEKEYS Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 enjoyed the video...thanks any written documentation.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BP3 Posted December 11, 2009 Author Share Posted December 11, 2009 I'll see if I can get Frank to post some info here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzzz Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Fantastic! This reminds me of the Novachord Restoration Project Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TronDoc Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Bill, Thanks for posting this here. And thanks to all of you who enjoyed that video. Although I can repair/restore nearly any old keyboard (curently working on a Clavioline and two Solovoxes), Trons are my passion. The "Blue" Mellotron video was just to showcase my work. When I am done, they play as fast as many synths and have a very light action. Anyone who has any further interest is welcome to contact me. If you have an old Tron, I would be happy to discuss fixing it up. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonksDream Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 Welcome to the Forum Frank/TronDoc! Your restoration work in the video looks superb. Instrumentation is meaningless - a song either stands on its own merit, or it requires bells and whistles to cover its lack of adequacy, much less quality. - kanker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUSSIEKEYS Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 loved it frank...be proud very interesting stuff....love to know the trons previous history as to how it lost some keys etc..the interestring painting on it...infact it would have been hard to paint over that picture as did it have any history associated to it [the tron as painted] or band etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TronDoc Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 I kept the back panel. There were no missing keys. There was a missing tape spill box and missing cheek blocks. The preamp and line amp circuits were fried and the motor control card (CMC-10) was crap. It took more than 120 hours to rebuild it. At some point the whole project took on a life all its own. I wanted to take something caught in a 70s moment and, while retaining all of its character, update its appearence and make it competent to play on any stage or in any studio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TronDoc Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Fantastic! This reminds me of the Novachord Restoration Project I bow at the feet of Phil Cirocco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzzz Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Frank, is there a back story to this blue Mellotron? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TronDoc Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Frank, is there a back story to this blue Mellotron? Not really. I saw it on eBay and bid on it. I ended up winning is pretty cheap because it was missing so many parts and only one other guy wanted it. I drove up to Connecticut to get it from a guy who collected guitars and some keyboards. He told me that he had set it up to play loops and that he used it on stage. He lied. It was absolutely unplayable. In fact, it wouldn't even turn on. Most of his other stuff was as crappy as the Mellotron. There was dirt in it from back in the 70s. I ended up actually getting him to refund me a substantial amount of money when I discovered that the only other bidder was his buddy who was bidding it up. When I first posted photos of it on my myspace page, I got an email from a kid in England who told me his dad had played it in a studio there and recognized the Unicorn paint job. That's pretty much all I know. My intention was to just use it for parts or maybe eventually rebuild it and use it for a test bed for improvements. It sat around my shop for a couple of years until last July when a guy contacted me. He was looking for a deal so I told him if he would fund the project I'd restore it and he could pay for it over time. The original intention was to just paint the inside and restore the machine and update the electronics. Many of my clients who bring me their machines don't want to pay to have the outside done, but I always clean, repair and paint the insides. Once I had rebuilt the Mellotron itself, I played it in the skellotron (a rig that holds two frames and enables me work outside the cabinet) while I fixed up the inside of the cabinet. In the video you can see where I painted the inside blue. That's all I was going to do to the cabinet. The clean install and all of the other work would have been identical to what you saw. This is all he wanted to pay for at the time. The Mellotron itself would have looked exactly as you see it now on the inside, except blue, and with the Unicorn back panel intact and the crappy paint on the outside However... Once I got it playing in the skellotron, I knew it deserved better. I had a completely diffent look in mind. So I contacted its benefactor (new owner) and convinced him to pay me to fix up the outside (I made him a great deal.) I did not tell him anything about what it was going to look like. He never got to see it until he came to get it. Then I found out I no longer had access to a spray booth where I would have painted it with two-part acrylic lacquer. So I turned to plan B and went to a friend who used to paint motorcycles. We decided to use epoxy automobile paint. It is very expensive. When you add up the gallon of paint, reducer and catalyst, the investment is over $400.00. Luckily you can paint a whole bunch of Mellotrons with that much paint. The paint is great and very chip resistant but the cabinet takes a lot more prep. When the new owner came to pick it up, he was overwhelmed. He had never met me or seen the Mellotron. He had only seen the before photos. His blind faith was well rewarded. It plays as great as it looks. So that's the story. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mate stubb Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 What's the big round thing in the side of the cab - a speaker or vent? Never saw a mellotron with one of those before. Moe --- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITGITC Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Inspirational. "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marzzz Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 So that's the story. Great story, thanks! It is so cool to see something restored, no reincarnated like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TronDoc Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 What's the big round thing in the side of the cab - a speaker or vent? Never saw a mellotron with one of those before. Neither. If you watch the video you will see that someone (idiot) cut a hole in the side of the cabinet... most probably to be able to grab the flywheel for those extreme pitch-bending moments (later explored by John Medesky, who, wisely, only removed the lid). So when I fixed it up, I had to come up with some way to deal with the hole. I decided to put a black Plexiglass disk over it (if one wishes, it can be opened to reveal the flywheel). I suspect that when the Mellotron was originally butchered the order of good ideas went something like this... "Hey, let's cut a hole in the side of the Mellotron so we can grab the flywheel for some extreme pitch bending. Uh-oh, now the cabinet looks like shit! Let's paint it; I have some blue spray paint. First, though, we'll smoke a shit load of weed and we can listen to Yes while we paint it. Hey this looks pretty cool! Let's put a groovy Unicorn on the back. We'll put him on a tree branch in outer space looking back at the Earth. It'll be all magical and stuff. . Wow, this is the bestest Mellotron ever... Now let's make it really super great. Let's make it play tape loops like a Birotron. Shit it doesn't work anymore!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoodyBluesKeys Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 You forgot to add the ending - "Wow, man - it don't NEED to work anymore, lets just smoke a few more and look at the big thing spinning. Oh, oh, FAR OUT!" Howard Grand|Hamm SK1-73|Kurz PC2|PC2X|PC3|PC3X|PC361; QSC K10's HP DAW|Epi Les Paul & LP 5-str bass|iPad mini2 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Amazing, wonderful work, Frank. A real credit to your craftsmanship and dedication. Studio: Yamaha P515 | Yamaha Tyros 5 | Yamaha HX1 | Moog Sub 37 Road: Yamaha YC88 | Nord Electro 5D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TronDoc Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Thank you Aidan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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