Revox G36 refresh -- any experiences?

[titanstats]

Hey all. Picked up a pretty decent two track G36 last week (looks to be a MK III), just got around to giving it a clean/inspection yesterday. Cosmetics are nice, tube compliment is original and still good, heads fine for me, and it has the broken counter that nearly all G36s apparently have; all functions seem to work save for a problem with the reel motors.

Reel motors are functional when you initially hit play, but after the relay that delivers extra juice to the reel motors for the initial 0.5 seconds kicks out, they slow to a stop. Manually advancing the takeup reel yields non-distorted sound in both channels, so that's nice. Since I have to change out the motor run caps at any rate, I'm going to have this beast in a bunch of pieces to access them. The teardown looks exciting.

Anyone here done a rebuild/refresh on a G36 before? Looking for any hints or known pitfalls to watch for with this 55+ year old machine? There's a few switches, etc. that I don't really like the look of in there and I don't want to bust anything unobtainium. I've wanted one of these for a while now and they just don't come up very often where I live, so I was pretty happy to get it. Thanks in advance, couple 'o pics of this machine for you.

 

[bobschneider]

That does look like a G36 Mk III to me - the electronic end of tape sensor circuit above the head block is a giveaway. The earlier versions used a micro switch.

I started to restore a Mk II, but found a clean Mk III before I finished and so put the Mk II aside. You’re right that some of the parts are basically unobtainium. The tape counter most commonly, but the reel tension switch can also be a problem if it breaks. My Mk II has both those problems.

If you haven’t found him, Nagravox in Australia has the parts to do a full restoration of your deck, or pretty much any other Revox reel to reel. https://nagravox.com/ is his website. He also sells on eBay, but he has better prices on his own site.

 

[titanstats]

That does look like a G36 Mk III to me - the electronic end of tape sensor circuit above the head block is a giveaway. The earlier versions used a micro switch.

I started to restore a Mk II, but found a clean Mk III before I finished and so put the Mk II aside. You’re right that some of the parts are basically unobtainium. The tape counter most commonly, but the reel tension switch can also be a problem if it breaks. My Mk II has both those problems.

If you haven’t found him, Nagravox in Australia has the parts to do a full restoration of your deck, or pretty much any other Revox reel to reel. https://nagravox.com/ is his website. He also sells on eBay, but he has better prices on his own site.

Thanks for the input, the speed selector is the one that I’m most concerned about for sure. Since I’ll have this thing in many pieces to access the motor caps, I was hoping to find out if there’s anything else needs doing at that time; motor bearings or what have you. Hate to keep tearing the machine apart unnecessarily, you know how that can go with very old gear.

I had a couple interactions with Nagravox a few years back, was kind of a bizarre experience tbh. I needed some parts from the site so I inquired, but got a pissed off letter from the owner saying although they sell parts, they don’t like to sell parts, and said because of that it would cost around $60 to ship five bulbs weighing roughly five grams. I get they’d rather sell the kits, but why list parts for sale that you aren’t really willing to sell? Unfortunate, because otherwise they’d be a good resource.

 

[twiiii]

WE sold them at one time, but I never worked on one. They made great recordings using high output tapes that were back coated. Especially Maxell. They couldn't keep up with Ampex 600 or PR-10-2/4 though they had a better frequency response. But the Ampexs could put more signal on the tape and take it off with out saturating or distorting and had better signal to noise below 3% distortion. But the Revox was very hard to beat at 3 3/4 ips and Ampexs could not. Partly because the head gaps on the Ampex heads were larger and the Revox used a Circular head surface for the tape to pass over giving the smoother bass response with out LF bumps of other machines. Studer new what they were doing when it came to the basic concepts of Revox. The execution was not always the best. I detested the cheap switches, potentiometers, and buttons and the poor VU meters. The brake bands leaved a lot to be desired also.

 

[titanstats]

WE sold them at one time, but I never worked on one. They made great recordings using high output tapes that were back coated. Especially Maxell. They couldn't keep up with Ampex 600 or PR-10-2/4 though they had a better frequency response. But the Ampexs could put more signal on the tape and take it off with out saturating or distorting and had better signal to noise below 3% distortion. But the Revox was very hard to beat at 3 3/4 ips and Ampexs could not. Partly because the head gaps on the Ampex heads were larger and the Revox used a Circular head surface for the tape to pass over giving the smoother bass response with out LF bumps of other machines. Studer new what they were doing when it came to the basic concepts of Revox. The execution was not always the best. I detested the cheap switches, potentiometers, and buttons and the poor VU meters. The brake bands leaved a lot to be desired also.

>>The brake bands leaved a lot to be desired also

Lol, Revox brakes. They work fine when they're working, but adjusting them to get them working will always be a mystery. An annoying problem with this machine is the one-piece front panel; reassembling it is a hair-pulling PITA as you have to manage to get the four small buttons on the bottom of the panel into their holes -- the buttons are on long stems and aren't supported so they will fall 1/2" to either side of the holes when you try and line them up (times four!). You can't just start at the bottom, squeak them in and lower the faceplate either, because then the faceplate won't clear the headblock when you go to lay it down. Reminded me a lot of doing this, but four at a time:


I already love this thing though, planning to store the stock travel suitcase and make a suitable housing for it out of teak ply that will incorporate the factory back panel and hopefully echo a little bit of the elegant A77 case that came after.