Seasons Greetings!

We're winding up a banner year for the Mellotron community.

Our friends at Mellotron Archives and Streetly continue to provide us
with new machines, tapes, refurbs/repairs, parts, and advice. Markus
at MA unveiled a dual manual in the spirit of the Mark V, and
Streetly unveiled a Skellotron that will be the platform for a new
Novatron. New sounds have been added to the Mellotron Tape Library in
the past year, too.

MONEYPIT (Mellotron Owners of New England...or Mellotron Owners
Needing Excessive Yen for Purchases for Improving their 'Trons (see
the MONEYPIT group at http://www.YahooGroups.com )) had several get-
togethers, saw some restorations/repairs, participated in a
workshop/demo, and have started some projects due to be complete next
year. That's a lot of stuff.

Documenting the MONEYPIT activities is fun, and I'm glad to announce
that this year's installment has been finished up (well, maybe a few
loose ends or photos to come, but it's mostly there).

Off http://www.kleonard.com/mellotron/ you will see the variety of
MONEYPITs for 2004:

- March:
-- An icy introduction to Sharayah, the restored Mark II "Pindertron"
-- A Return to "MONEYPIT South" (see October 2003)

- April:
-- A MONEYPIT trip to New Jersey, including a Morris Canal tour and a
visit to the Doddy Residence and a radio interview

- May:
-- Memorial Day Weekend in Vermont where we did some work on a
machine you may hear on an Aerosmith album someday

- July:
-- A Fun Fourth of July with The Moores, The Mellotron Demonstrator,
The Synertron, and The Mooatron (I wonder if that name will stick...:-
) )

- The Gatherings:
-- A Mellotron Workshop in Philadelphia organized by Jeff Coultier


On Christmas Eve Day I spent a little while playing "The Dreary Set"
(piano, smooth organ, electric guitar) on #1037. It's definitely a
Mellotron---feh. But that's OK.


Have a good holiday season and a Mellotronic 2005!

...kl...