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Don't Laugh At Me, But...I dragged this home today!

Retrokeeper, if I have any issues with it I will let you know. I almost did tonight! One of the 8-tracks I bought at the GW had the "melted roller" problem...I thought I had checked them all out before I bought them. That is the one thing that kills 8-track players- when the rollers in the tapes turn into a black "goo" and it just totally gums up the works. I am careful what I stick in the Grand Am's deck. The Steppenwolf tape has this problem. I did put it in. It sounded weird, and I yanked it out right away! Whew. I then put in the Herb Alpert tape which plays perfectly and it still played perfect so I don't think I messed it up.

There used to be this girl and her husband that had a website that bought and sold 8-tracks. Her husband would actually take them apart, clean them, and then put new rollers in them if needed. And the would sell'em for a buck a tape or 10 ro $8. I think the website was "Katestrackshack"...probably could google it and see if they are still around. Get some for your Soundesign!!

Anyway, glad you all think it is cool. The wife hasn't seen it yet. But for $7 I don't think she will kick much! LOL.
 
jryan464 said:
Yeah Spaceman, there was the BIG Pontiac called the Grand Ville...it was the full sizer like a Buick Electra or Olds 98
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That's what I learned to drive in, a '72 Grand Ville. It had a huge 455 V8 with a 4 barrel carb that took off like a rocket for such a heavy car.:thmbsp: Our '76 firebird had a factory 8-track player. My dad was a Pontiac fan too. I'd love to have one of those '77 Can-Am Grand Ams.
 
Yeah, my dad worked for a Pontiac-Cadillac dealer in Montana...so I have a thing for old Pontiacs...I really wanted a '73 GA, but when I ran across this '75 it was too nice not to buy. A real umolested survivor car. It's from Montana too so no rust. Coll 70's colors. White exterior and two-tone red interior with white vinyl bucket seats. Rear seat is white too.

As far as 8-tracks, the Grand Am's and this JC Penney are really the only ones I have owned! When I was just getting into stereos in the late 70's cassettes were the thing to go to. I was one of the first of my buddies to have a stereo cassette deck- an Akai CS-34D. So, do I clean this 8-track like I did my cassette deck? I mean, it has heads and stuff so I suppose it is dirty to some extent. Swab and deoxit? Let me know. I do want this thing to keep playing. Again, as long as I avoid shoving "gelled" roller tapes into it ...
 
Whoa now - not to make fun of JC Penney. They sold some pretty nice stuff, just had to pick and choose through their line. I know the format well. I no longer have any 8-track players (or 4-tracks either), but I might have some cartridges somewhere in the attic.

I worked for a few years for GRT (General Recorded Tape - tape division of Chess/Janis records). Look and see if you have any of our old medium blue cartridges in your collection? Let me know how they sound as I'm sure I worked on the tape winders and splicers that built whatever GRTs you have? We also made many with other colored cases for ABC and other labels under contract.

Way cool retro toy. Now hook it up to some better speakers and see what it can do? We used to have Eagle commercial 8-track decks that fed Advents in the Q/A line. They always sounded good if the tape was right? Had even higher end stuff in the sound studios. Pretty amazing what you can get out of 8-track if you try :)
 
Great fun those old 8 tracks. I know as I found a huge box at a yard sale a couple of years ago and have been buying them every so often since.

The goo wheels are bad news, but as long as you don't put them in you can fix them if you feel like learning a goofy skill. Watch out for goo pads under the tape as well, as that can be just as bad. Pretty easy to fix if you have some long nose small pliers and some thin weather stripping from the local hardware. There are sites that detail it all. If the goo is on the tape, you can use a q-tip or two in alcohol to wipe it off. Have fun.

Old Ponchos are a blast too. Those 70s motors got the energy crisis low compression heads but they were a blast.
 
I just can't believe there's still a '75 Grand Am somewhere. I'd bet I haven't seen one of those since last time I saw a Javelin. Even Dusters are hard to come by these days.
 
When I clicked on this thread, it smelled like my Grandparents closet. Nothing but Geezers here for sure.
 
Actually, I have it hooked up to a small pair of Fishers because they are the only speakers I have with RCA connectors which the storm'in JC Penny unit requires LOL...I will look for some better ones here and there. It actually has a lot of bass and the highs are nice too. Can't believe how much fun you guys have all been on this little unit. It is pretty cool. BTW, my wife thought it was hilarious when she saw it. But when she heard the Peter Frampton tape she thought it sounded pretty darn good too. Def not "Hi-Fi" but a decent little stereo system that is out of the ordinary for sure.
 
jimfet said:
When I clicked on this thread, it smelled like my Grandparents closet. Nothing but Geezers here for sure.
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How old's yer grandpa, 50? :D

Remember the lime green Chrysalis 8 tracks & cassettes?
Not you, jimfet, just the geezers-LOL.
 
Hey Jimfet, FWIT, I play in a rock band with one guy who is 19, another is 30 and the other is 35. So I guess that makes me the geez! But we can sure rip out the Stone Temple Pilots and AudioSlave like no tomorrow! Along with AC/DC & Van Halen!! Does that still smell like your grandparent's closet?
 
jryan464 said:
...Brings back fond childhood memories of those days...
So don't laugh.
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We get into this stuff for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is sentiment. As long as you're havin' fun, go for it! :music:

jryan464 said:
There used to be this girl and her husband that had a website that bought and sold 8-tracks. Her husband would actually take them apart, clean them, and then put new rollers in them if needed. And the would sell'em for a buck a tape or 10 ro $8. I think the website was "Katestrackshack"...
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Yup, http://www.katestrackshack.com/
 
A junk store near here has a great 8-track recorder for sale. Yes, it really does record! Not only that, but it was made by quite a respectable company, Sansui or (maybe more likely?) Aiwa. Nice real wood case, too. All for $35. I don't have any actual use for it myself as I went straight to cassettes for the car, first guy I (personally) knew who did so. Yep, I've been behind the curve tech-wise ever since.
 
You need those brown 12' of 22 or was it 24 gauge RCA plug speaker cable !!!

Seriously plug-in some big efficient Cerwin-Vega !
 
hi, JRYAN 464! how's this for an idea? if you got any of those old speaker cables with those RCAs, snip off one end and separate the outer wire strand from the center shelded one. strip the sheld and twist both. you should have cables with RCAs one end and twin bare wire the other that should allow you to use any speaker you desire! plus you can solder speaker cable to it to extend the length! i did this to test my mother's boyfriend's sears t-table/8-track/cassette/AM/FM just a few days ago ! anyway, just an idea that seems to work...
 
I ain't laughin' at you jryan464. When I bought my '68 AMX 3 years ago it came with a TOTL AM-8track. That got me into 8-track. Well that and finding a box with over 100 8-tracks at an estate sale and picking it up for 5 bucks. I now have a Wollensak and a Pioneer 8-track player/recorder, as well 2 of those receiver/tape units like yours. One's a Wards Airline and the other a name I've never seen before, both purchased at garage sales for less than 10 bucks. I have a couple hundred carts and have learned how to do most repairs on the carts. I'm waiting for a new supply of foil bought off ebay to do some more repairs.
 
Very nostalgic. I wished I had kept all of my 8 track tapes. I got pretty good at fixing them when they broke.

In high school (early 70's) one of my friends had a baby blue 1969 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. It had a TOTL in dash am/fm 8-track with 4 speaker sound. One helluva a car and ride.
We were living it back then. Cruising almost every night and just trying to be cool. The memories.
 
Yeah, but I heard he has 7,985,997 8-track tapes and 1 of those Roberts reel to reel/8-track combination units plugged into a pair of Grommes Little Jewels feeding a set of K'Horns in his 300 sq. ft. retirement room. The tuner, of course a REL.
 
Since I posted my "find" yesterday, I just want to say that you all are very cool and that is what makes this site so great! Most of us, me included are here for def the more "hi end" of hi-fidelity. But we all remember stuff like my JC Penney find. Again, I never would have an interest in 8-tracks' if it werent' for my '75 Grand Am. I Knew way back when that cassettes were way better, but as time moves on, those 8-track cartridges have a kind of cool mojo and when I got that car I decided to leave it in the dash. Partly because it worked still and sounded pretty decent. So, thanks for all the fun on this thread. Stereos like this and SounDesign's got us all where we are today I think. Plus, i can play my 8-tracks over the winter too now!! LOL....
 
pioneervato said:
Very nostalgic. I wished I had kept all of my 8 track tapes. I got pretty good at fixing them when they broke.

In high school (early 70's) one of my friends had a baby blue 1969 Lincoln Continental with suicide doors. It had a TOTL in dash am/fm 8-track with 4 speaker sound. One helluva a car and ride.
We were living it back then. Cruising almost every night and just trying to be cool. The memories.
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"Nowadays you can't be too sentimental, your best bet's a true baby blue Continental. Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyway it's still rock n roll to me"
 
The suicide door Lincolns from the '60s were IMHO the top of the heap in American cars. A couple of the T'birds from this period also rated there. We used to have a '62 and a '66 hardtop and a '66 convert. Killer cars when 1 is in high school and trying to impress the chicks. Only problem was if you got the top down there was nothing guarenteeing it would go back up when you wanted to get some privacy later in the date. More than once I drove home at 10mph with the top half up and half down.
 
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