Dave Kean and I (Markus Resch) have been running the Mellotron business since the early 1990s. After Dave bought all of the US and UK original archives for the Mellotron tapes he needed someone to do electronics, tape frames and other spare parts needed. Being a Mellotron enthusiast since the late 1980s I was more than happy to help out.
The first newly produced electronics came in 1992 and the first tape frame in 1993, until today I've done more than 100 motor control boards and 120 tape frames as spare parts for M400 machines. Dave has over the years spent a lot of time, energy and money to secure all of the original master tapes and the rights to the Mellotron trademark. He also was instrumental in resurrecting the Mellotron in the early 1990s by many hours of support to Mellotron owners and enthusiasts. This made it possible for so many musicians to use this unique keyboard instrument in their music.
Many of the original masters were stored very badly in the early 90's and were close to being sent to the dump. A large part of the original master archive would not have been around today, if it hadn't been for Dave's efforts and his belief that this is a very important part of keyboard history. Nobody back then was prepared to pay a cent to save the Mellotron to posterity.
Dave Kean and I started the MkVI project in 1998 after having toyed with the idea for several years since we have a stock of unused tape heads from 1974. I built a Mellotron in 1994 using some parts that I got from Dave and making the rest myself. During the years I'd been refining that machine until it basically was a prototype for the MkVI. During development and production I was in constant contact with Dave who gave important input and had useful suggestions for the project.
Markus Resch
