Mellotron MkII
The history of tape replay instruments starts with US inventor of note, Harry Chamberlin, who had an epiphany in 1949 while recording himself playing a Hammond organ. “For heaven’s sake. If I can put my finger down and get a Hammond organ note, why can’t I pick a guitar note or trombone note and get that under the keys somehow? As long as I know how to play the keyboard, I could play ANY instrument!”
He set to work and created a series of prototypes with varying degrees of success until he realised his first commercial magnetic tape based keyboard product in 1956; the appropriately named Chamberlin. A succession of more refined versions followed, culminating in the Chamberlin MusicMaster 600. This was a dual manual behemoth of an instrument, with a left manual containing 35 notes of rhythms and accompaniments recorded in a variety of styles and musical keys; plus a right manual containing 35 notes of assorted chromatic instruments such as Flute, Piano, Organ, Guitar, etc. Scrolling to different sections of the tapes enabled the user to shuttle between different ‘stations’ with each station containing three tracks. This gave the player a huge array of rhythm and lead combinations and while there was a limitation of an eight-second note duration before the tape needed to be rewound before being replayed again, this ‘orchestra-at- your-fingertips’ was rightly considered a technological marvel.
Our Chamberlin M4
The Chamberlin made appearances on popular TV shows such as I’ve Got A Secret in 1962, and was championed by Bobby Darin and even Jerry Lewis (the actor/comedian). There’s a great recording of the latter demonstrating the instrument.
The story takes a strange twist when Harry’s window cleaner, Bill Fransen, overheard him playing the instrument and volunteered to become his salesman. Any of Harry’s reservations were quickly batted aside by Bill, a larger-than-life, Californian ex-lifeguard, who subsequently set to work selling Chamberlin instruments to cocktail lounges, dance halls and wealthy individuals. However, beneath the magical veneer of the Chamberlin instrument there were technical issues that soon became evident to Bill.
Firstly, as with all electro-mechanical devices, any moving parts will equate to wear, tear and maintenance. Secondly, with all the components bolted to the cabinet and not an interior chassis, when the cabinet was moved, or sometimes even nudged, tapes became misaligned with the tape heads. Thirdly, the lack of matched tape heads meant that there was an uneven sound across the keys. Finally, due to fairly barbaric wiring, it was a potential fire hazard, something we can attest to after taking delivery of a supposed ‘fully restored’ Chamberlin M4 and witnessing our tech being horrified at poor soldering, wiring rated below that of the amps drawn. Oh… and a live chassis! (The chassis was a component part of the M4 model).
It’s fair to say that as a true inventor/engineer, Harry wasn’t really interested in sales and marketing, something that, together with the instrument’s aforementioned issues, frustrated Bill. So in early 1962 he informed Harry that he intended to find a solution to some of the technical problems and drove off armed with two Chamberlin MusicMaster 600 instruments.
Back then it wasn’t uncommon for salesmen to be out of contact for weeks at a time, so Bill’s lack of communication didn’t initially seem cause for concern. But unbeknown to Harry, Bill had boarded a ship bound for the UK and on arrival he disembarked with both MusicMaster’s. Rumour has it that during the voyage the Chamberlin name had been replaced with the name ‘Franson’ but this story seems largely unsubstantiated. Nonetheless, shortly after his UK arrival, Bill made contact with a company in Birmingham, Bradmatic, enquiring about seventy matched tape heads.
Bradmatic Ltd had a long history dating back to the 1930s. During World War II the company made machine tools for the manufacture of Lancaster bombers and Spitfire fighter aircraft and was run by three brothers, Les, Norman and Frank Bradley. Post-war, the company specialised in the production of audio amplifiers, tape recorders and tape heads, so, intrigued by a sudden request for seventy matched tape heads, they agreed to meet Bill Fransen in London where they were introduced to what they described as a remarkable music making machine.
Documents produced by Bill and James Harvey-Monroe attested to Bill’s ownership of the instrument and, intrigued by both the engineering aspect and the commercial potential of the instrument, the brothers Bradley offered to buy the rights to manufacture it, fix the inherent engineering flaws and then produce it for the home entertainment market. Fransen readily agreed and the company Mellotronics was formed to manufacture and sell the newly named ‘Mellotron,’ allegedly created via the words ‘MELOdy’ and ‘elecTRONics’.
With the exception of the now legendary Three Violins sound, which was recorded by Harry Chamberlin in the 1950s, well known band leader, Eric Robinson, oversaw the recording of new sounds and rhythms. Eric also came on-board as an investor and a new company was formed under the name of Mellotronics Ltd, with manufacturing in Streetly, and the music, recording and marketing side of the business, initially in London’s Mayfair, working in conjunction with IBC recording studios, but moving to Portland Place a little later.
It took over three months to record the first set of tapes in London, while in Streetly the various. engineering foibles of the original instrument were investigated and either altered or improved by the Bradley Brothers, including an aluminium chassis to provide more stability for the tape guides. And in late 1963 the Mellotron MkI was unveiled. Rumour has it that the MkI name came about due to the names of four of the assembly staff, Melvin, Lottie, Ronald and Mark. Each tape was 42 feet long, 3/8” wide, and via a pinch-roller and felt pad, each tape was pulled across the tape-head thanks to a 7.5 inch per second motor. Individual screw adjustments were available for tape wow and volume, and to select the different Stations, a pulse tone recorded at the beginning of each was read by a separate tape head which then stopped the motor at the selected Station.
Initially, as per the Chamberlin, the MkI was marketed towards theatres, clubs, and exceedingly wealthy individuals as the ultimate home entertainment console. Gradually though, the instrument started to gain a foothold in the consciousness of contemporary musicians, starting with Graham Bond’s record, Baby Can It Be True, released in 1965.
Approximately 50 MkI’s were produced before further engineering changes, such as the use of a Reynolds chain for Station cycling, resulted in the release of the MkII in 1964. Most MkI’s were subsequently upgraded to MkII specification and in 1967 the sound of the ‘Tron exploded onto the British music scene thanks to that iconic Flute appearing in the opening of The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever, and the legendary Three Violins sound on 2000 Light Years From Home by The Rolling Stones.
Meanwhile, back in the US, Harry Chamberlin, concerned at not having heard from his salesman, reportedly went to Bill’s address, heard the radio on and kicked the door down to discover Bill had truly vanished. However, the story goes that in 1965 Harry was contacted by a US distribution company interested in selling Mellotrons but who’d performed some due diligence and found related patents assigned to a Mr Harry Chamberlin. Naturally, Harry contacted the unsuspecting Bradley Brothers and a deal was eventually hammered out. Reportedly, this involved the payment of $60,000 to Harry, plus an agreement that Mellotrons would be sold in the UK and Europe, while Chamberlin instruments would be sold in the US and North America. There is also talk that a royalty was to be paid for each Mellotron sale but this cannot be confirmed by Les Bradley’s son, John. However, what John can confirm was at the end of the settlement meeting, recognising that the Bradley Brothers’ intentions had been honourable, Harry shook hands with everyone except Bill. John Bradley states. “While my father and his brothers bought the rights to what they thought was Bill’s creation, during early meetings about how to improve on various engineering aspects of the instrument, my father started to have doubts about Bill’s level of engineering expertise. It was silly things at first but slowly it dawned on him that all might not be what it seemed. However, Bill was larger than life, both in stature and character, so every time my father pulled him up on something, he’d brush it off in his alpha male manner.”
Nonetheless, with everything finally settled, things started to really take off for Mellotronics and after the aforementioned Strawberry Fields Forever and 2000 Light Years From Home put the Tron msound in the ears and consciousness of the British public, other bands and artists followed suit. mIndeed, The Moody Blues’ keyboard player, Mike Pinder, actually worked at Mellotronics for 18 months and is credited as the person who in 1966 introduced his friend John Lennon to the Mellotron and by doing so, helped make history. On his website, Mike describes the moment he first saw and played the MkII as a “First man on the moon” event. “I knew that my life had led up to this moment, this portent to the future, and the instrument felt like an old friend.” After leaving Mellotronics (Streetly Electronics) to concentrate fully on his band, The Moody Blues, Les Bradley found a secondhand MkII at the Dunlop Tyre Factory’s Social Club for Mike to purchase, and this was subsequently used on Days Of Future Passed, In Search Of The Lost Chord and beyond. Many feel that while The Beatles may have catapulted the ‘Tron into the World’s consciousness, Mike Pinder was the bonafide master of the instrument. His use of the pitch control and volume swells undoubtedly contributed to the band’s success, but also reinforced that in the right hands the MkII was way more than a home entertainment console.
Similarly, while Rick Wakeman never owned a MkII, he did use David Bowie’s on Space Oddity, augmenting real strings with the ethereal Three Violins. Rick once told us that the motor would slow down as he added more notes to a chord, so in order to keep the instrument in tune he would have to manually adjust the tuning knob while playing. This indicates that Bowie’s was an early version with an AC motor because a subsequent DC motor cured this issue.
Approximately 125 MkII’s were made between 1964 and 1976 and while we’ve already mentioned some notable owners, others included Peter Sellers, Brian Epstein, Princess Margaret, Sefton Myers (father of Judy Tzuke) and Scientology guru, L Ron Hubbard. The last one of these is still serviced by current custodians of all UK Tron-ness, Martin Smith and John Bradley of Streetly Electronics.