Following the wild trail blazed by fuzzmaster Pat Kraus and the original Musical Electronics Library in Auckland, the Wellington chapter of the Musical Electronics Library got underway with a launch on the 14th February at the Pyramid Club.
The Wellington MEL is a lending library of largely handmade musical electronic devices made by a community of musicians and makers. The devices are housed in recycled VHS cases which look pretty cool (see photo below). Library members can borrow these electronic devices, and any other equipment accumulated by the library, to experiment with at home in the bathroom, in the practice room, live on stage, in the park, at mum’s place, at work, on the bus, down the pub, in the koru lounge & elsewhere!
Auckland based musician and electronics whizz, Pat Kraus, instigated the first Musical Electronics Library in Auckland in 2014 – the first of its kind and a world leader in the Scavengetronica movement.
The Wellington MEL catalogue will be up and running soon, but for now check out the Auckland MEL’s lending catalogue for an idea of the kinds of things on offer:
Wellington branch co-ordinator Nell Thomas explained to us: ” Donations of electronic parts, equipment and skills are always welcome! In the style of the Auckland MEL, we are not limiting ourselves to homemade devices only – we’re also gathering musical electronics (effects pedals, small synths, etc) in good condition that need a new home. If you’d like to donate to Wellington MEL or join the team of makers feel free to get in touch with me at – thomanell@gmail.com.”
The Wellington MEL catalogue is up and running here. You can also join their Wellington MEL Facebook Group.
Any library nerds reading this may also be interested in the fact that MEL uses a real catalogue based lending system just like any other library. Myturn has developed a Library Management System for community based libraries intending to loan ‘Tools, Equipment & More’…..
Thanks for the shout out to myTurn.com. We’d love to see more music electronics (and instrument) lending libraries!