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Any Vintage Tape Recorder Collectors on Here?

Yazdgerd

Yazdgerd

New Member
Hey Ladies and Gents,

While a standard tape player/recorder that utilises C or D batteries may not be considered "high quality" when it comes to audio, this is often all some people had back then in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Ever since I was young, I have had an obsession with old tape recorders (mainly cassette, but I have a warm spot in my heart for reel to reel equipment as well)...

This feeling just got re-kindled when I found my Fisher RC-75 from around 1970, when Fisher was known as the "The Fisher"...I also found a Sony TC-40 down there in the basement, a Sony TC-66, a Craig 2609, as well as a ton of other old ones I didn't even list yet....

So what do you have that works or doesn't work, and what is your favorite? I am curious to see if there are any other "tape nuts" such as myself on here :)

Yaz
 
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Ive got a Montgomery Wards 8 track with AM/FM and amplifier out in the garage. I dont have many tapes but the ones I do have still play...they even go CLUNCK when the track switches....
 
That sounds like one of the AIRLINE models from the 70's? I had one of those, and I ended up giving it to a buddy of mine who uses it in his garage quite frequently...He says he is kind of afraid to use the 8-Track player because he had an 8track player that ate tapes indiscriminately...

Luckily, I don't remember that machine eating any tapes...Other than that it was a nice unit, I am glad he puts it to good use...

Ahh, the satisfying clunk of the track advance button...I can still hear that sound in my mind :) Nostalgia.....

Yazdgerd
 
I've got a still working Superscope CD-320.
Quite a few cassette decks.
I've always liked the cassette format.
Also have a mid-70's Craig Powerplay AM/FM 8-track car radio with speakers.
Bought it in High School for the family car. I've always wanted to make it into a boombox, or put in my 1987 Chev. p/u-keep the tapes piled up on the dash.
 
If we're talking portables I've still got my old Sony 5" reel to reel from ages ago. It still works for the most part but after being dropped hard a few times it's a little quirky so it doesn't get used much anymore.

I've since replaced it with a much better UHER Report 4000. It has the voice activator and the original microphone as well as a bunch of other accessories. The rechargeable battery was toast so I wired it up to a common DC power supply. It will still operate with C batteries too.

My first tape recorder ever was a Craig 212 that used 3 3/4" reels. I wore that thing out when I was a kid, in fact I got another one and wore that one out too. It really was pretty decent for a little portable machine - wish I still had those tapes!

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I have two Concord F-400 stereo tape recorders circa 1969 which if they weren't heavy enough to begin with, require six D batteries. I also have several shoebox tape recorders including a Sony TC-110B, an early 70's Panasonic and an early 80's Realistic. I am down to one portable reel to reel, a Sony TC-800B, a favorite of Dick Nixon who made use of the 15/16 ips feature from time to time.
 
I have, in my mother's garage, an AIWA "portable" reel-to-reel from about 1967 (7-inch reels; 3-3/4 and 7.5) with built-in speakers.

It was my first reel-to-reel and it set the standard for garbage so thoroughly that I was never again disappointed from that point on in my hi-fi journey :D

6 or 8 D batteries and you could just grab it by the handle and go boogie down the road....:banana::nono:

I have never before or since come across tape guides that literally both looked and felt like paperclips bent down to guide the tape...as the machine aged, I found a new way to EQ: I would bend the angle of the guides to prevent the tape from dancing across the headgaps, with wildly different bass/treble response as a result...

I did have fun with it, though: recording myself on guitar along with my cassette deck; covering the erase head with paper to make "multitrack" radio plays with my playmates and such.

I wonder if the old beast would still fire up....:scratch2:

C.
 
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As far as recorders that run on C or D cells I have the Marantz PMD-222 that runs on 3 D Cells. Also the Yamaha TC-800GL that takes 9 C Cells but I am not sure that this one is qualified.
 
The only one I have that would fit this thread is a Realistic 105 reel to reel tape recorder, mint, in box with mic and all paperwork. For some reason I love the lil guy.
 
hrballenger said:
My oldest original cassette deck is a National RS-255s portable cassette deck, purchased at the Tahn Son Nhut AB exchange in 1969 or early 1970. For pics see: http://mail.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2666264#post2666264 Works off of either AC mains supply ( 120/220 selectable ) or 6 "d" cell batteries.
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I have to thank you immensely for that. That deck was marketed in the US as the Concord F-400 and I have been literally looking for YEARS to find an image of the Panasonic or National version of that deck. Does yours run slightly off pitch? I've had two and they both have run fast and all the tapes my father taped on his in 1969/70 are all slightly slow. If I am not mistaken, I think that may be one of the first portable stereo decks.

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TAGO MAGO said:
I have to thank you immensely for that. That deck was marketed in the US as the Concord F-400 and I have been literally looking for YEARS to find an image of the Panasonic or National version of that deck. Does yours run slightly off pitch? I've had two and they both have run fast and all the tapes my father taped on his in 1969/70 are all slightly slow. If I am not mistaken, I think that may be one of the first portable stereo decks.

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Yeppers, may have been one of the very first portables. When I first bought it even finding tapes was a chore outside of the BX. As far as the speed, that's adjustable ( pot on the motor control board ). I've rebuilt/refurbed this RS-255 several times thru its lifetime ( most recently this past summer... new belts, new pinch roller, cleaned and lubed everything, deoxit and lube on pots and switches, head alignments, speed adjust etc etc etc ) it sounds pretty good :) Even still have the original factory supplied demo tape that came with it way back when. Never knew that these decks were even sold in the USA, I've looked for info and came up blank.
 
I passed up a REALLY nice looking Aiwa deck awhile back in a thrift. I should've grabbed it to play the collection of 3" reels I have.
 
hrballenger said:
Yeppers, may have been one of the very first portables. When I first bought it even finding tapes was a chore outside of the BX. As far as the speed, that's adjustable ( pot on the motor control board ). I've rebuilt/refurbed this RS-255 several times thru its lifetime ( most recently this past summer... new belts, new pinch roller, cleaned and lubed everything, deoxit and lube on pots and switches, head alignments, speed adjust etc etc etc ) it sounds pretty good :) Even still have the original factory supplied demo tape that came with it way back when. Never knew that these decks were even sold in the USA, I've looked for info and came up blank.
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Did the pinch roller and belt replacement remedy the wow and flutter inherent with this deck? Again, I would normally blame age, but my father's tapes from 1969 (either TDK SD or BASF) also have the wow and flutter. I am just wondering if the original roller was too hard or misshapen from the get go.

Of course now that I know the National model number from your post, it looks like I can now find a service manual for it and get to work on both of them since they are very cool decks. By the way, they were also sold through JCPenney under the Penncrest name. JCPenney and Matsushita (SP?) have a long running history as most of their items were either relabeled National, Panasonic or Technics units.

Here is the demo tape that was with one of the two I have:
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The deck this was from I think was bought new in 1971 and it is a 30 minute tape and welded together. The tape that was with my dad's deck from 1969 was a 60 minute tape and screwed together.
 
I've got a late sixties/early seventies panasonic shoebox cassette recorder that I think is too cool to toss...

....and about a dozen R2R decks including an Otari MX-5050, Technics RS-1500, Tascam 34b, Ampex AG-440B, Crown CX-844, Teac A-3340S, and more!
But I guess those are a bit too HiFi to count :D
 
jleon92f said:
I have a few smaller decks. Here is the Craig 212.
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Boy, seeing that sure brings back a lot of great memories! Those Craig 212's were great little portables. They made a 5" version too, but it was too expensive and kind of hard to find back then.
 
TAGO MAGO said:
I think the Craig 212 was a Sanyo made deck. Wasn't there a small cassette recorder from the same era that used the "gear shift" type transport.
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Yes, it was the model 2603. It was around $60 as opposed to $40 for the 212 (in 1969 dollars) and there was also a 2606 portable cassette with a built in AM/FM radio that retailed for $120 back then too. Both had the same "T" control lever as the 212. I do remember all the electronics inside being stamped with the Sanyo name, so you're probably right about Sanyo making them for Craig.
 
audiojones said:
Boy, seeing that sure brings back a lot of great memories! Those Craig 212's were great little portables. They made a 5" version too, but it was too expensive and kind of hard to find back then.
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I had one of those too, it was a great recorder until it died and I couldn't resurrect it- this was around 1997, and it may be somewhere in my attic :(

If I had the skills and the tools, I would be able to revive a ton of equipment I picked up over the years from hamfests and thrift stores, and the occasional garage sale...
 
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