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8-track score!

geartech

geartech

certifiable open reel nut
Can an 8-track player even be a score? I think maybe its a sign of my sickness. But this Zenith had a cool element to it, I thought. So I got it from Goodwill for $10. Its also got some features I personally have not seen on a 8-track player. After all, I have about 100 8-tracks stashed for some reason. and yes 95 of 'em need to be fixed, but hey...If I fix them they'll be ready for my 68 GTO with a factory 8-track player whenever I get that done...which will be even longer if I'm fixing 8-tracks in my spare time...:scratch2:
 

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holy wow and flutter, batman! Now I really remember 8-tracks and why I havent listened to them in many years. Bad foam, bad splices...oy. So much for this. I'll just be testing which ones are still good.
 
I like the players, but hate the tapes. I got a minty Woodstock 2 tape, that broke at the splice immediately when played. A format that you have to restore the tapes? I can resist it, especially when they're so hard to take apart. Cool machine, though. I'm waiting for a glass head Akai to show up at my thrifts, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
love 8 tracks

I love 8tracks. But the best deck I had for playing back tape I got ride of years ago. What was great about it. YOu have a knob to fine align the head. So if somethign was a little out of wack for bleed over. Just fine tune it a tad.

Josh
 
My project. A Craig my Mom found 10 years ago. Just need to re-condition the capstan. It got a new belt and cleaning.
 

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Thanks to first-class AKer thedelihaus, one of these classic ahem Radio Shack 8-track decks lives at my house :-) This is the non-Dolby-ized version.

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For the OP's benefit, in case s/he wasn't aware of it:
http://www.8trackheaven.com/
 
matchbook

Thanks for bringing back memories of aligning the tape by wedging whatever could be found in the car with one hand. If there was a co-pilot they were responsible for aligning the tape. Matchbooks worked very well.
 
As a champion of the underdog and the weird, I own quite a few 8-track recorders. My favorites are the Wollensaks, the Pioneer HR-99 and HR-100, and the Akai CR models.

I like the looks of the Zenith. I notice it has a contour button. That's an interesting feature for a deck.
 
Dwartz said:
I like the looks of the Zenith. I notice it has a contour button. That's an interesting feature for a deck.
Click to expand...

Looks to me like it says"cont'ous", for continuous play, I assume, where the tape cycles through all four programs ad infinitum and just keeps ker-chunkin' along... (looks like Napoleon beat me to this...)

Let us not forget the Techincs 858, which is not too shabby, IMHO. I consider mine to have been a pretty good scroe at $5. Plays and records in quad, has pause, and the FF is actually pretty speedy. Also, it has four vu meters. One of my rules of audio gear is that anything that has four or more vu meters is welcome in my system. Only thing it doesn't have is Dolby.
 

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Yes its Cont'ous for continous. And the FF is very slow :(
So far: 35 good tapes, 27 bad. and about 40 to go! whew!

I like those players, and the matchbook thing does bring back some memories...
I've seen the 8track heaven site, but I'm not sure I have the time to spend fixing these. I might just go with the ones that work...maybe fix a couple that I'm bummed about like "Robin Trower Live".
 
Matt Fisher said:
Looks to me like it says"cont'ous", for continuous play, I assume, where the tape cycles through all four programs ad infinitum and just keeps ker-chunkin' along... (looks like Napoleon beat me to this...)

Let us not forget the Techincs 858, which is not too shabby, IMHO. I consider mine to have been a pretty good scroe at $5. Plays and records in quad, has pause, and the FF is actually pretty speedy. Also, it has four vu meters. One of my rules of audio gear is that anything that has four or more vu meters is welcome in my system. Only thing it doesn't have is Dolby.
Click to expand...

Thanks to those who pointed out how bad my eyesight is. OK, Cont'ous makes more sense, but how often do you see abbreviations like that on the front panel?

Kudos to your Technics, and nice score! I've been looking so long for an affordable one, I had forgotten about them!
 
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