By Brian Fifield Whilst searching for employment, I spotted an ad in my local Fulham Chronicle for a porter/studio setter in a north London recording studio. I applied and couldn’t believe my luck when I realised it was actually EMI Studios Abbey Road NW8. After an interview and a quick look around with John Skinner […]
by Robert Webb Why The Extensive Use of Mellotron on the Garden Shed albumThe Mellotron is the bee’s knees of keyboard instruments. Why? Essentially because in keeping with over 600 years of successful musical keyboard inventions* the Mellotron equips the musician with an array of previously unavailable sounds via interesting and restrictive control mechanisms. In […]
King Crimson’s Mellotrons In March 1999, Robert Fripp put his Mellotrons up for auction.None were sold during this sale, Fripp having accepted none of the offers offered. Mellotron Mark II #113 | In the Court of the Crimson King | ThrakMellotron Mark II #232 | In the Wake of PoseidonMellotron M400 #211 | Islands | […]
Years of Production ? Number of Units ? Original Price ? Dimensions W x H x D 86 x 86 x 56 cm Weight 55 kg The 400FX is a scaled-down version of the FX Console, in the form of an M400. It came with 12 tape frames, each with 105 sounds, one per track […]
Years of Production 1981 – 1983 Number of Units 3 Original Price £999 Dimensions W x H x D 70.5 x 88 x 66 cm Weight ? The T550 is an M400 in a flight case with space for 2 tape frames and a volume pedal. Produced in the 1980s, this model bears the name […]
Videos of each Mellotron model are available in the respective sections.
Years of Production 1968 – 1970 Number of Units 52 Original Price £871 Dimensions W x H x D 107 x 92 x 67 cm Weight 113.4 kg The M300 was created in order to reduce the Mark II‘s size and weight. It was the first Mellotron not to have built-in speakers. However, an amplifier unit, […]
Years of Production 1970 – 1977 – Novatron: 1978 – 1986 Number of Units about 2 000 Original Price £795 – Novatron: £1,374 Dimensions W x H x D 86 x 82 x 57 cm Weight 55 kg The M400 is the first Mellotron whose size and weight are suitable for relatively easy transport.It is […]
Years of Production 1965 – 1970 Number of Units about 60 Original Price £1,500 Dimensions W x H x D 129.5 x 99 x 68.5 cm Weight 159 kg At the request of the BBC, Streetly Electronics has created a new model, the Sound Effects Console or FX Console, a Mark II whose technical characteristics […]
Years of Production 1975 – 1977 – Novatron: 1978 – 1980 Number of Units 26 – Novatron: 4 Years of Production £2 200 Dimensions W x H x D 132 x 89.5 x 66 cm Weight 152 kg Basically, the Mark V is made of two M400s in a single cabinet with a built-in stereo […]
Years of Production 1981 Number of Units 5 Original Price $4,495 Dimensions W x H x D 89.53 x 89.53 x 57.78 cm Weight 47 kg The 4 Track is the first Mellotron manufactured in the USA and marketed by Sound Sales Inc. Only 5 units were produced by Bomar Fabricators in Southbury, in 1981: […]
Years of Production since 1999 Number of Units Mark VI: 102 – Mark VII: 4 Original Price $5,200 Dimensions W x H x D 83.82 x 86.36 x 55.88 cm Weight 44.45 kg The Mellotron Mark VI was designed by Markus Resh, David Kean’s associate(Mellotron.com ).It takes the main features of the M400 while making […]
Years of Production since 2007 Number of Units aroud 55 (nov. 2021) Original Price £4,500 Dimensions W x H x D 85.5 x 93.5 x 67 cm Weight 74 kg Twenty years after the production of Mellotrons stopped in 1986, Streetly Electronics introduced a new instrument in May 2007, the M4000. From the outside, it […]
Years of Production Mark I: 1963 – Mark II: 1964 – 1968 Number of Units about 55 – Mark II: about 300 Original Price £1,000 Dimensions W x H x D 129.5 x 99 x 68.5 cm Weight 159 kg The Mark I is the very first Mellotron model, based on the same concept as the […]
Originally designed by Opsonar, the Orchestron was an attempt to perfect the Optigan for use by professional musicians. It will eventually be manufactured by Vako, a company created by David Van Koevering (1940-2018), a former employee of Moog. Compared to the Optigan, the Orchestron uses the same principle of optical celluloid disc reading but its […]
The Optigan was created in Californie in 1971. It was produced by Optigan Corporation, a Mattel subsidiary, up until 1973, and by Opsonar afterwards. The Optigan was an instrument that used celluloid discs, which featured recordings of real musical instruments (especially organs) and accompaniments. The term “Optigan” comes from the words “OPTIcal orGAN”. It was […]
After a concert in 1975 at Carnegie Hall, Rick Wakeman (the keyboardist of Yes) met David Biro, an American from Connecticut. Biro presents his invention to him, an instrument capable of playing recorded sounds without the downsides of the Mellotron (sound limited to 8 seconds, impossibility of playing quickly…). It is a keyboard connected to […]
The Mellotron directly comes from the Chamberlin (see History). In 1946, in California, Harry Chamberlin created a musical instrument that was able to play pre-recorded magnetic tapes. Somehow, it was the first sampler in history. 1948 – 1949 Model 100 Rhythmate Approx. 10 unitsIt’s the first Chamberlin. It could play 14 drum loops recorded on […]
Streetly Electronics Martin Smith and John Bradley – son of Leslie Bradley, designer of the Mellotron – restore all models of Mellotron and sell spare parts and new tapes.Since 2007, they have been marketing a new model, the M4000.Streetly Electronics is located in England, near Birmingham. Streetly Electronics mellotron tape library Audio excerpts of the […]
The Mellotron’s basic system is the same on all models. The model M400 is the one which will described in this page. Because of its simplified mechanism, the M400 should help you to understand more easily the way the instrument works. The system is basically the same as a tape recorder.Each key on the keyboard […]