The Ampex AG-440B Resurrection

vinyldavid

vinyldavid

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I received this machine 3 years ago from my friend Tom. The story I got it with was it came from KMOX, then it somehow wound up at a local electronics shop. When found, the headblock had full track mono erase and record heads, but a stereo play head kludged with the top channel reading the center of the tape. A note on the headblock said the heads were replaced in '84. Upon further examination, I found that the transport was completely set up for stereo-stereo everything, including electronics power cables. All intact.

Shortly thereafter, I was given a pair of 440B electronics from my friend Ken. But I never messed with them until today. Previously, about two weeks before I moved (almost a year ago, now), I had purchased a stereo headblock off eBay, but I decided to install it after I finished up moving. Bad idea on my part, I believe that my mother tossed it, as other things from the area it was in have come up missing, and she remembers tossing a few small boxes. That was pretty demoralizing, and I didn't do anything with it for a long time, since finding another headblock for cheap was exceedingly rare.

A few days ago, I received a package from my friend Chris. It contained a stereo 440B headblock, and a full track mono head to complete my mono headblock! He came into a large cache of Ampex parts, and was kind enough to give me a headblock plus the mono head needed to complete my original one.

I bolted everything up, made all the connections, and flipped the switch. Eventually, the upper elex channel came to life, the middle one never really did, and the meter stayed pegged, so I swapped to the channel that came with the machine. Despite everything being miscalibrated, it makes music, hooked up to my off-brand ghettoblaster.

It still needs a full calibration, recap, and cleaning, but it has a pulse!

440B-firsttest.jpg


The bottom cover does exist, I just didn't put it back on before I took the picture.

I forgot my real video camera, but here's a video I shot with my iPhone. I ran it through the YouTube 'shake eliminator', so it looks a bit off, but at least it shouldn't cause any headaches!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trohxWoAhEI
 
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Probably the most underated studio deck ever made. Those B electronics can really be made to sing and there are a few tricks like doubling the capacitor value for C111 I believe. I have 2 440's that I use the B electronics,they are C transports though. If you recap use good parts like metal film resistors,along with low ESR caps. The biggest improvement you can make is swapping out the playback transformer for a lundahl. It looks involved but is a easy mod. My 440's absolutely kick butt,but then my upgraded cards ran me about 1k. Not bad considering the decks can be had for 500 or 600.....good luck and enjoy.
 
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Also, another thing to note. MCI cards also work in the AG 440 series, MCI basically copied the AG 440 series electronics in the day. Agree about the AG 440 being the most underrated studio machine, sturdy, reliable, and usually great sounding.
 
You wonder if the center-channel placement of the head was to play Nagra pilot tone, or center-channel timecode. (I don't remember -- one of those might be "bi-phase" so that it doesn't read on a full-track head.)

I do remember that, when spotting sound effects from a 440 to multitrack, you had to manually spin up the left-hand idler so it would get up to speed quickly.

We also had a setup to varispeed the capstan motor, using a HP oscillator and a power amp, with a connector that fit the motor.

Chip
 
Chip, I think that this was a radio station's attempt at getting a deck going cheaply, as the play head was mounted improperly, and relatively loose when found.

Kent, Thanks for the heads up about the MCI cards. If I need some more, I'll know where to look.

Maron, I know someone who has channel bulbs. I myself will be converting everything over to LED, but I'll see if my contact will part with any.

Fast996, At the moment, those Lundahls are too much for my budget, but I'll certainly keep them in mind.

This deck will turn into a test bed for mods, as it's going to acquire a couple friends if all goes well this week. :D
 
Just stumbled on this thread. Congrats on the AG440! I've got two mono AG440B's and will make one stereo unit eventually. Might sell my Revox A77 to fund the project.
 
This 440B has been put on the back burner, as shortly after this thread was posted, I was gifted a 440B with servo motor (fully working), 440C-1 (with a bad motor), and a 3M 1/2" 4 track M64 deck. Hopefully soon I can take another look at this deck, and decide what to do with it.

I've been playing with the Servo 440B, and I can't believe that more people don't love these machines. My friend and I did a comparison between his 440C-2 (that I fixed for him) and his bought-new Revox A700, and the Revox came up as "adequate", with the 440C the clear winner.
 
Who cares about the Ampexes, I want to see pics of that Mincom! :D

Really though, you should buy a lottery ticket, those are sweet machines. (and I wasn't kidding about the M64, you don't see enough of them around. pleeeeease post pics!)
 
Thanks for the links and the photos. It's really cool to see one running. I'd kill to have one of those 3M machines- not that I'm not drooling over the Ampexes either! I started youtube creeping you, and I must say, you have some really phenomenal gear. I'm not just talking about tape stuff, either. Subscribed.

Kind of random, but I found the noise of the servo motor on that one 440 to be very interesting. Also, for not being aligned or anything, and probably not having run in years, I was very surprised at how nice that machine sounded.

Aw man, you even got a bunch of 207 with that M64! Awesome. Pretty much my favorite formulation, although I don't really have any machines that can run the really high bias stuff.
 
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Thanks! I really should start making in-depth videos of some of the more interesting stuff I have. There's a lot of it. I still have the hour+ of camera running during the first power up of the 3M that I need to do something with. I tried making it 5 minutes, but it was just too boring. I might add title cards and make it a minute or two...



The Ampex servo motors have always made that sort of noise, as best I can tell. I plan on converting my 440C-1 to a synchronous motor when I can find one, and the 440B with servo motor that I have now will remain servo until it goes bad. Interestingly, my friend's 440C-2's servo drive unit was causing oscillation at 14khz and 20khz. I swapped in the drive amp from the 440C-1 I had with the bad motor, and the problem was fixed.
 
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Today, 1/1/14, I wanted to do one thing: put together an Ampex AG-440B that looked right and worked.

I originally got an Ampex AG-440B-1 with stereo transport wiring and one elex unit from my friend Tom about 3 years ago. It worked, but there was a stereo play head kludged in, with the left channel reading the center of the tape.

My friend Ken gave me a pair of 440B elex that had been sitting in his garage for years.

My friend Chris got me a stereo 2 track headblock.

My friend Bill gave me a 440C-1 that's been turned into a parts machine.

I took the electronics risers off the 440C, and put them on the 440B. After testing both elex from Ken, I took the one that sounded the best (despite having the meter not work), and installed it above the elex unit I got with the deck. Then I put the headblock on.

It lives! I still need to adjust the torque a bit, and get the whole thing set up correctly, but I now have a working Ampex 440B! I also now have a complete full track mono 440B headblock. I'm going to use the replaceable EQ/bias cards from the spare elex channel to have a preset for full track mono on the upper channel.

Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtenULwuBxQ
 
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