He didn't like the sound, for a start. He'd worked with "real" orchestras in The Nice, he didn't feel it was adequate. He also didn't like the 8-second limit on notes, the fact that it was largely just a chordal instrument, plus he wasn't a fan of the original King Crimson, he didn't want to be seen as copying that sound. Of course, ELP did end up using a Mellotron when Greg played one during their failed experiment to do
Abaddon's Bolero on the 1973 European tour.
As a listener, I am picky when it comes to the sound that bands produce. I never liked Keith's GX-1 sound at all, it always sounded thin and washed out. However, on the ELPowell tour, Keith used this:
PPG_Wave_2.jpg
It's a PPG Wave2, it had a nice beefy sound. Greg used different basses throughout his ELP days, loved the Jazz Bass through HiWatt sound of 1970-1972, loved the Ripper through his Crown amps > speaker cabinets set up on the BSS tour, loathed the Alembic sound on the
Works tour. For me, I loved the beefy, full sound of the BSS tour, the thin washed out sound of the band on the
Works our is one of the reasons I don't like the
Works tour stuff at all.
It's not just prog performers and fans who are gearheads, I found this great article about the terrific French band AIR , they love vintage gear and had their own studio built to accommodate it.
Memorymoog, hell yes!
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