Mellotrons or Chamberlins in 1966 Hollywood?

Recently I've been listening to a lot of '60's California "sunshine pop" stuff like the Ballroom/Millennium, the Yellow Balloon, and Jan & Dean's "Save For A Rainy Day," etc. to check out some of the production techniques and it got me to thinking - how many people in L.A. had Mellotrons in 1966? There couldn't have been more than a few. Mellotrons were almost unheard of here in the states until the late '60's/early '70's. I know that a few people in L.A. were using Chamberlins but the sound is a little different. I was discussing this with some musicain friends and someone responded with the following info:

I doubt that there were any Mellotrons in LA during 1966, even into 1967. The UK production model came out in ‘64, and it’s high price tag prevented most from owning one: John Lennon was rumored to be one of the first musicians to actually buy one in ‘65. There’s a quote from Stephen Desper where he says he could not find a Mellotron for Brian’s studio after the Beach Boys requested one, so instead he got two models of the Chamberlin (equipment budgets didn‘t seem to be a problem for the Boys in the late 60‘s, so it seems to be more an issue of the Mellotron just not being available in the US). Besides the unavailability outside the UK, there would really be no use for a device in the states that performed the same functions as the Chamberlin, which had already been in use in the US well before the first Mellotrons hit the UK market. The Mellotron was basically a copy of the Chamberlin, with some modifications.

After thinking more about this, it occurred to me - the reason that people probably thought it was a Mellotron on those 66-67 L.A. recordings (Rainy Day, Ballroom, etc.) is because the "strings" sample is the same on both the Mellotron and the Chamberlin. All of the other sounds are different. I'm convinced now that this is the case - that was a Chamberlin at United/ Western or in Joe Osborn's garage, etc. When some guy sits down to do the interview for the CD liner notes... he hears "those strings" and other funny sounds on the record, the musicians remember some sort of "ancient sampler" and the writer just figures, "Oh it's a Mellotron." No one ever thinks about the Chamberlin, and I think they were made in California if I'm not mistaken. If you listen to the flutes on Jan & Dean's "Save For A Rainy Day" CD, they are a lot smoother and more realistic than the very "attacky" eerie Mellotron Mark II flutes. In general, the Chamberlin sounds are more realistic, although sometimes there was a lot of vibrato (Lawrence Welk's musicians were sampled!), while the Mellotron sounds are more unique and often don't sound much like the actual instrument. There are also a lot of sounds on "Rainy Day" and the Ballroom/Millennium recordings that don't sound anything like the available Mark II tape sets from the mid '60's. You also probably would have heard a lot more of the classic Mark II sounds and "rhythm loops" on record if they actually had a Mellotron at their disposal. Maybe we just solved a little mystery here...

For trivia purposes, I think the first "hit" record to feature a Mellotron was "Semi-Detached Surburban Mr. James" by Manfred Mann in October 1966.