The Mellotron - FX Machines

There have been two models of Mellotron over the years that described as FX machines for use in radio and TV industry as sound
effects machines.

The first was an offshoot of the Mark II and was produced for the BBC that was called the FX Console. It had 1260 sound effects
(recorded by the BBC) and was used for adding sound effects to radio and TV productions such as Doctor Who.

An FX console being demonstrated for a late sixties tape recording enthusiast's magazine

Changes to the specifications included improved signal to noise ratio and removal of the internal amplification system (replaced by a
small mono monitor amplifier and headphone socket) and of course a regulation BBC grey finish. Over the years some of these
machines have had music tapes refitted to them, giving an instrument that is sought after for recording, the Abbey Road machine was
one of these.

The infamous Abbey Road Mellotron that started life as an FX console, then had music tapes fitted and finally ended up
belonging to Paul McCartney who still has it.

(picture courtesy of Martin Smith)

About 60 FX consoles were made between 1965 and 1970.

A variant of the M400 (called the 400FX) was available to special order to replace the FX console once the production of Mark II's
had ended. What you ended up with was an grey M400 with the tone control replaced by a 'monitor' control that determined the
volume of the signal coming out of the additional headphone socket on the front. This allowed the operator to determine what the next
sound effect cue sounded like while the main volume was down which was more useful than the original tone control as EQ and
effects would be added externally. As the M400 has no cycling mechanism the 400FX were supplied with eleven additional tape
frames in cases (1260 sounds in all) to make it equivalent to the original FX console. It was claimed by Streetly that a set of tapes
could be changed in two minutes. I can confirm that, with practice, that this time can be easily improved on.

About ten 400FX's were made between 1970 and 1984 although another twenty or so standard M400's were converted and sold as
FX machines to various broadcasting companies around the world.