How Does It Work?

This is the mechanism for one note in a Mellotron Mark II. There are 69 more just like this one.

While the designer's goal was probably to make it sound exactly like the original instrument that was recorded, the quality of a Mellotron's sound is, perhaps accidentally, distinctly its own. It has been called a 'mutant organ' and its sound is often described as moody and warm. It gives a song a haunting, lonely quality. Bob Seger's live recording "Turn the Page" is an excellent example.

Mellotrons and Novatrons were produced in England by Streetly Electronics from the early '60s until the early '80 by Leslie Bradley and his brothers Frank and Norman.

A Chamberlin is very similar to a Mellotron, produced in the US by the original inventor of the Mellotron, Harry Chamberlin. The sound of a Chamberlin has a somewhat different quality than the Mellotron, being more crisp and true to the original sound. This was due in part to the higher quality tape heads used.

Most Mellotrons have 3/8 inch wide tapes with three different tracks that can be selected from the front panel. This is accomplished by moving the heads together across the width of the tapes. In this way, the sound can be easily changed while playing. It is also possible to set the heads in between tracks to blend the sounds.

Early Mellotrons had long tapes divided into six seperate sections, each with three tracks, that could be selected. Motor driven rollers shuttled the tapes back and forth to select one of these six stations. The Mark II had two keyboards of 35 notes each so it had a total of 1260 seperate recordings inside the box! (2 keyboards x 35 notes x 6 stations x 3 tracks).

Starting with the Mellotron 400, the tapes had only one section of sounds with three tracks each, but were mounted on easily changeable racks, so several racks could be kept on hand to change sounds. This greatly simplified the mechanism and reduced the cost.

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