24-01-2023, 06:41 PM
The Melotone was Compton's first electrostatic product to reach production in 1935. It was an add-in for a cinema organ that was not a complete instrument in itself, but added some extra tone colours, especially useful on smaller organs. Also found on large instruments as it could make sounds that pipes could not. Summerlee has one of the popular small 6 rank + Melo Comptons, but IIRC (and I might have this completely wrong, I should really check) the Melo went missing during refurbishment works on the building and organ. I seem to remember thinking at the time, that someone probably assumed it was a piece of old PA / cinema sound equipment and threw it in the skip. It wouldn't be an isolated case. More recently, during the refurbishment of the Odeon Leicester Square, the building contractors ripped out not only the Melotone's loudspeakers and wiring but the organ console lift controls and switchgear etc, assuming all old electrical equipment to be redundant. Donald MacKenzie went to re-commission the organ and found no power to the blower and a dismantled lift. It took him a while to get that lot sorted out.
Of the 74 Melotones made, around 15 were operational the last time I had a count-up. One has been living with me for a while, from the ABC Plymouth organ that is in store. While it was in the workshop, we had the rare sight of two side-by-side while we were servicing the one for Pipes in the Peaks. I am supposed to look after the one at Southampton, but we get so little access to the venue and there is always so much to do, that it doesn't get as much attention as it should.
One of the interesting quirks of the tone generators of the original Melotone, is that it is not quite in tune with itself. This is due to the original configuration of encoding four complete octaves in each generator, where adjacent semitones cannot have exactly correct frequency ratios as there must be an integer number of cycles of each waveform. By the launch of the Theatrone in 1938, they had progressed to using 12 separate smaller generators, one for each semitone in the octave. But, somewhere between these two was the prototype self-contained electrostatic organ that debuted at their Acton works in 1935. It appeared in Wireless World on 24th May of that year, where we see a tantalising glimpse of an extended Melotone cabinet with three generators instead of two, and an extra matrix relay.
Pics - The Compton Melotone series 3. Earlier versions were in metal cabinets, one for the generator and one for the amplifier.
Of the 74 Melotones made, around 15 were operational the last time I had a count-up. One has been living with me for a while, from the ABC Plymouth organ that is in store. While it was in the workshop, we had the rare sight of two side-by-side while we were servicing the one for Pipes in the Peaks. I am supposed to look after the one at Southampton, but we get so little access to the venue and there is always so much to do, that it doesn't get as much attention as it should.
One of the interesting quirks of the tone generators of the original Melotone, is that it is not quite in tune with itself. This is due to the original configuration of encoding four complete octaves in each generator, where adjacent semitones cannot have exactly correct frequency ratios as there must be an integer number of cycles of each waveform. By the launch of the Theatrone in 1938, they had progressed to using 12 separate smaller generators, one for each semitone in the octave. But, somewhere between these two was the prototype self-contained electrostatic organ that debuted at their Acton works in 1935. It appeared in Wireless World on 24th May of that year, where we see a tantalising glimpse of an extended Melotone cabinet with three generators instead of two, and an extra matrix relay.
Pics - The Compton Melotone series 3. Earlier versions were in metal cabinets, one for the generator and one for the amplifier.
