A big hand for the MELLOTRON !!

 

Hi Verslibre,

To respond to your question, the model is actually a Mark I/Mark II Mellotron. These are the earliest mellotrons and were produced between 1963 and 1967. I marked Mark I/MarkII mellotron because those two models were identical on the outside but the Mark II were an upgraded Mark I. Owner of Mark I in the 60's can upgraded it to Mark II specifications and I think that the one on this pic began as a Mark I and was upgraded to Mark II.That pic came from the first edition of Vintage Synthesizers(i don't know if it's featured on the second edition, i just have the first), an early 90's book and that mellotron is owned by David Kean wich is the founder of Mellotron Archives, the US company that doing mellotrons restorations and produced the later model, the Mark VI.

 

Those double keyboards Mark I/Mark II are featured in a lot of 60's and 70's and used by  bands like the Beatles(Strawberry Fields), the Rolling Stones(Their Satanic Majesties Request), King Crimson (until Islands as they were replaced by M400), Genesis (Trespass to Foxtrot, they bought an M400 by Selling England...),Pink Floyd (Ummagumma,Atom Heart Mother and others songs), the Moody Blues  and lot of others.Numerous non-musician celebrities also owned Mark II in the 60's like Princess Margaret, Peter Sellers, Ron Hubbard (founder of the Scientology church) and King Hussein of Jordania.

 

Those Mark II were originally target to the home entertainement market, a bit like Hammond organs. The left keyboard were rythms and fills and the right keyboard is lead tapes of instruments, so you can have a complete orchestra on your fingertips.When the Beatles used it first on Strawberry Fields.... it became a novelty instrument and a lot others artists and later prog musician began using it. A lot of rock player like Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues replaced the left rythms and fills tapes with lead tapes, so they can have 2 sounds at the same time. Those Mark II also had banks of sounds. The left and right keyboards each had 6 banks of 3 sounds for a possibility of 18 sounds per keyboard and a total of 36 sounds.The banks were selectable with a track selector that pushed the tapes in the right banks but a lof of musicians who do shows with them(like Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues) blocked the track selector to one track because the tapes transportation was very fragile,so it was more prudent to blocked it to one bank. Those Mark II mellotrons weighted 450 pounds compared to 120 pounds for the M400(the common "white toy piano" model), so that's why a lot of touring musicians switched to M400 when they became available in 1970.. Hope that answer your question.

 

 

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I've just seen Wakeman's solo from yessongs, where he plays some "six wives". That's the M400, isn't it? with the choir sound, right? Is that the typical choir? If you can help me with some examples of songs with choir-mellotron. Sorry, but I don't know the groups Erik named in his article.

Thanks

 

                      Well Anaon, fellow Tronmaniac, I just checked, llok at this: